Art Praxis 5134 - Printmaking

Printmaking

process in which an artist repeatedly transfers an original image from one prepared surface to another

Print

transferred image

Matrix

working surface

Intaglio

-printmaking where image is incised into the surface of the plate, so the incised area holds ink.

- collective term for intaglio process.

Intaglio

-printmaking where image is incised into the surface of the plate, so the incised area holds ink.

Ground

-a metal (usually copper, zinc or steel) plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid, then the artist scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle.

Soft-ground etching

-lines look like a pencil or crayon lines (made by drawing on a piece of paper that covers a soft wax coating on the plate);

- pressure sensitive

- when paper is lifted off, it removes the wax where the pencil pressed.

Hard ground etching

draws through a hard wax that coats the plate; lines are usually thin, wiry, and blunt at edges

Aquatint ground

used for tones

Engraving

-Intaglio family

-Incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it.

- Result may be a decorated object in itself or it may provide an intaglio printing plate of copper or another metal.

Drypoint

-Intaglio family

-An image in incised into a plate with a hard pointed needle of sharp metal or diamond point.

-Plate is usually copper

-Lines and burrs will hold ink, and larger burrs (created by a steep angle of the tool) will hold larger amount of ink.

Aquatint

-Intaglio family

-Variant of etching

-An etching technique consisting of sprinkling a metal plate with powdered resin and heating it to adhere; creating a dense or lightly granulated effect.

-Technique consists of exposing the plate to acid through a layer of resin or sugar.

-Acid bites the plate only in the spaces betwin the resin particles, achieving a finely and evenly pitted surface that yield broad area of tone when grains are washed off and plate is inked and printed.

- Can achieve a wide range of tonal values by exposing different areas to different concentrations or different exposure times.

-Often resemble water colors or wash drawings

Mezzotint

-Intaglio family

-Printmaking tonal method to be used, enabling half tones to be produced without using line or dot based techniques like hatching, cross hatching, or stipple (first tonal method).

-Achieves tonality by roughening the plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a "rocker."

-Tiny pits in the plate hold the ink when the face of the plate is wiped clean.

Lithography

-Method for printmaking using a stone or metal plate with a completely smooth surface.

-Can be used to print text or artwork onto a material.

Intaglio Family

-Mezzotint

-Aquatint

-Drypoint

-Engraving

-Etching

-Mezzotint

-Aquatint

-Drypoint

-Engraving

-Etching

Intaglio Family

Silk-screening (Serigraphy)

-Uses woven mesh (often done with silk) to support an ink blocking stencil

-Using stencils to render images in painting with a cutout design on a piece of silk

-Stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp edged image onto a substance.

Collagraph

-Additive process

-Materials (sandpapers, textiles, bubble wrap, string, fibers, etc) are glued down to the plate

-Ink or pigment is applied to the resulting collage and the board is used to print onto paper or another material with press.

-Different tonal effects and vibrant colors can be achieved with the technique due to the depth of relief and differential inking that results from plate's highly textured surface.

Monoprint

-Form of printmaking that has lines or images that can only be made once, unlike most printmaking, where there are multiple originals.

-Does not limit the artist to either oil based or water based ink

-Usually plexiglass or metal

-A print that has the same underlying common, image, but different design, color, and texture.

Ghost image

In monotype printmaking, the second image pulled from printmaking plate

Monotransfer

turpentine put directly on fresh newspaper or magazine prints and placed on fresh paper, then burnished on the back with a pencil to transfer the prints to the clean paper

Block Print

print made from wood, linoleum, or vinyl

Woodblock relief printing

-An image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while non printing parts are removed typically with gouges.

-The areas to show "white" are cut away with a knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to show in the "black" at the original surface level.

Ukiyo-E

-often called "pictures of the Floating World"

-Edo Period (Modern Tokyo)

-Genre of woodblock prints and paints that flourished in Japan.

-Usage of solid colors and bold lines are the most used as visual effect.

-artists: Hokusai, Hiroshige, etc

Linocut

-a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface.

-raised parts are the parts that are shown printed.

Photogravure

an image produced from a photographic negative transferred to a metal plate and etched in.

Frottage

surrealist and 'automatic' method of creative production developed by Max Ernst that involves creating a rubbing of a textured surface using a pencil or other drawing material

Registration

the method of correlating overlapping colors on one single image

Registration marks

marks made on the press bedplate or on the printing surface to help insure that the paper is in exactly the same position everytime when printing.

Stopping-out

applying varnish to areas of metal plate to prevent acid from etching; usually combined with aquatint

Chiaroscuro

-using different woodblocks to print different tones

Bevel

To file down the edges of an intaglio plate to a 45 degree angle

Pull

to pull an image

Burnisher

in relief printing, any device used to push the paper against the inked surface.

Baren

-Japanese hand tool used in printmaking process such as wood or linocut

-disk like device with a flat bottom on reverse side, a knotted handle.

-paper is placed on an inked block and the baren is used to burnish (firmly rub) the back of a sheet of paper to pick up ink from a wood or linoleum cut.

Offset

-printing process in which an inked image is transferred to a rubber cylinder then to a paper

Burin

a steel tool used for engraving in copper or wood.

Gouge (Veiner)

-edge tool with a V or U shaped blade like a through for cutting channels or grooves into wood or linoleum.

Brayer

-hand ink-roller

Bench book

a wood or metal device to prevent linoleum from slipping while it is being cut

Block out

any material applied to a plate, block, or screen to prevent certain areas from accepting ink.

Mordant

acid used in etching: nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and ferric chloride

Tusche

-a greasy material used for drawing on a lithography stone

-used to make washout in silkscreen printing

Bur

the metal fuzz left after scratching is made into a metal plate

Charge

to cover silk screen with ink prior to printing

Rainbow Roll

placing three inks next to each other, then using a brayer to transfer them to a printing plate

Squeeze

a silkscreen tool used for pushing ink through a stencil onto paper or fabric

Squeegee

a silkscreen tool used for pushing ink through a stencil onto paper or fabric

Proof Print

a trial print pulled to test technical aspects of an image

Suite

a related group of original plate