Printmaking
Two-Dimensional Art
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Drawing
Painting
Printmaking
Imaging: Photography, Film, Video, and
Digital Arts
In comparison with painting and
sculpture, engraving is a
cosmopolitan art, the immediate
inter-relation of different countries
being facilitated by the portable
nature of its creations.
–Arthur M. Hind
The Importance of Printmaking
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Drawing and painting are special because
they can take a long time to create and
once complete, they are originals.
Printmaking is important for 2 reasons:
1. Allows us to study great works of art from a
distance
2. Makes artwork available to the general
public
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The art of printmaking and the physical prints
created have given rise to a unique art form.
METHODS OF PRINTMAKING
Four Major Categories:
1. Relief
2. Intaglio
3. Lithography
4. Serigraphy
METHODS OF PRINTMAKING,
continued…
• A design or image is made in or on a surface
by hitting or pressing with a tool.
• Print - the piece of paper or surface that the
design is transferred on to
• Matrix - the working surface
Matrixes includes:
– wood blocks
– metal plates
– stone slabs
– and silkscreen
RELIEF PRINTING
Relief Printing •
The matrix is carved with a knife or gouges.
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Cut out areas are not printed, while the raised areas are.
Ink is applied to the raised surfaces, often using a
roller.
The matrix is pressed against a sheet of paper and
the image is transferred.
Types of relief printing include:
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Woodcut
Wood Engraving
Woodcut
• Oldest form of printmaking
• After the invention of the printing
press, it played an important role in
book illustration.
• Created by cutting along the grain of
the flat surface of a wooden board with
a knife
Figure 7.2, p.137: ANDO HIROSHIGE. Rain Shower on Ohashi Bridge (1857). Color woodblock on paper.
13 7⁄8” x 9 1⁄8”.
Figure 7.3, p.137: ZHAO XIAOMO. Family by the Lotus Pond (1998). Multiblock woodcut printed with watersoluble ink. 42.7 cm x 41.7 cm.
• Hiroshige, a 19th century Japanese artist
achieved fine detail by tightly
controlling the movement of his
carving tools.
• Piece defined by clean-cut, uniform
lines
• Same process is used for different
effect by Xiaomo, contemporary
Chinese printmaker
• Creates complex, energetic
compositions that often simulate oil
paintings
Wood Engraving
• Laminated - For wood engraving, many thin
layers of wood are glued together to create a
hard, non-directional flat surface.
• Burin or graver is used to incise lines instead
of using knives or gouges
– Very fine lines can be made with the burin, and
these lines can give the illusion of tonal
gradations
• Wood engraving was used to illustrate
newpapers.
INTAGLIO
• Created by using metal plates into which
lines have been incised
• Plates are covered with ink which is forced
into the groove.
• Then the ink is wiped off the flat surfaces.
• The paper and plate are run through a press.
• The paper is pressed in the lines, and the
image is transferred to the paper.
Intaglio includes:
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Engraving
Drypoint
Etching
Mezzotint
Aquatint
Engraving
• Engraving is an ancient artistic method
• Engravings were on paper during the
15th century
• Clean lines on copper, zinc, or steel are
made using a burin.
• The harder you push, the deeper the
line, the more ink it holds, the darker
the resulting line is on paper.
Figure 7.6, p.139 PAUL LANDACRE. Growing Corn (1940). Wood engraving. 8 1⁄2” x 4 1⁄4”.
• Razor sharp tips of engraving tools and
the hardness of the end-grain blocks
make precision like this possible
• Form defined by tight, threadlike,
parallel and cross-hatched lines.
• Very demanding and painstaking
medium, this piece shows a great deal
of technical ability
Drypoint
• Drypoint is engraving with a twist.
• A needle is dragged across the surface
which leaves a rough edge or metal
burr left in its wake.
• This burr creates a soft line instead of a
crisp line.
Figure 7.8, p.140: REMBRANDT VAN RIJN. Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves (1653). Drypoint,
4th state. 15” x 17 1⁄2”.
• Has characteristic velvety apperance of
drypoint
• More distinct lines created with a
burin, and softer lines created with a
drypoint needle
• Rembrandt used the blurriness of the
drypoint line to enhance the sense of
chaos of the Crucifixion
Etching
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Etching is an intaglio process, but there are unique
differences.
Minimal pressure is used for the depth of the line.
A chemical process does the rest.
How:
1. A metal plate is covered with an acid resist and
liquid-like wax or resin.
2. Once dry the artist scratches this surface off with a
needle.
3. Then you place the plate in acid and it eats away
the exposed areas, deepening the lines.
Figure 7.10, p.141: GIOVANNI DOMENICO TIEPOLO. A Negro (1770). Etching, 2nd state. 5 5/8” x 4 9/16”.
• 18th century Italian artist
• Uses a variety of wavy and curving
lines to differentiate skin from cloth
etc.
• Lines are spaced to provide range of
tones
• Overall texture creates a hazy
atmosphere
Figure 7.11, p.142 HUNG LIU. Untitled (1992). Photo-etching, mixed media. 33” x 22 1⁄2”.
• This artist was forced to work in the fields in her country of
origin but is now a professor at Mills college and an exhibiting
artist
• This mixed-media piece shows a photograph of Chinese
prostitutes from the early 1900s
• When the communist revolution took hold, all able-bodied
people were forced into labor
• These women were forced into prostitution because the
tradition of foot-binding had left them barely able to walk.
• Hung Liu feels the need to make know the pain and suffering of
generations of women before her
Mezzotint and Aquatint
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Mezzotint comes from the Italian word meaning
“half tint”.
Does not depend on line
Mezzotint is rarely used; painstaking and time
consuming
How:
1. The entire plate is worked with a hatcher which
creates thousands of tiny pits all over the surface.
2. The hatcher is a curved multitoothed implement.
3. Then you polish or smooth the areas that you want
to be white.
Figure 7.12, p.143 PABLO PICASSO. The Painter and His Model. (1964). Etching and aquatint.
12 5/8” x 18 1/2”.
• Picasso brought the forms out by
defining them with patches of aquatint
• These tonal areas resemble swaths of
ink typical of wash drawings
• Descriptive lines are etched to varying
depths
Aquatint
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Much easier and quicker than mezzotint
How:
1. A metal plate is evenly coated with a fine powder
of acid-resistant resin. The plate is heated, causing
the resin to melt and stick to the plate.
2. Lines are etched.
3. The plate is placed in acid and the exposed
surfaces are eaten away.
4. Aquatint is often used with line etching to create
images that have tones that look like wash
drawings.
Figure 7.13, p.144 JOSEF ALBERS. Solo V (1958). Inkless intaglio. 6 5/8” x 8 5/8”.
• 20th century american abstract artist
• Created this piece by etching lines to
two different depths
• Furrows in the plate appeared to be
raised surfaces when printed
• He has created a kind of impossible
perspective
Other Etching Techniques
• Soft-ground etching - uses a ground of
softened wax
• Lift-ground - creates the illusion of brush and
ink drawing by brushing a solution of sugar and
water onto a resin-coated plate
• Gauffrage – ink-less intaglio
Lithography
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Lithography or planographic printing - invented in the 19thcentury by German playwright Aloys Senefelder
Unlike relief and intaglio printing, the matrix used in
lithography is completely flat.
How:
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A drawing is made with a greasy crayon on a flat stone slab.
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A solution of nitric acid is applied as a fixative.
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The surface is then dampened with water.
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The stone is covered with an oily ink using a roller. The ink
sticks to the wax but not the water.
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Paper is pressed to the stone and the ink is transferred from
the wax.
Figure 7.14, p.145 WANG GUANGYI. Great Criticism: Coca-Cola (1990- 1992). Lithograph. 73 cm x 69 cm.
• Features bold lines and sharp
definition of color and shape
• Reads like an anti-american
propaganda poster
• Simplicity and directness enhance the
power and message of the image
• Highlights the plight of lower-class
German mothers left alone to take care
of their children after World War I
• High-contrast and coarse quality
suggest newspaper quality
• All imagery thrust toward the picture
plane, almost like high-relief
Serigraphy
Serigraphy is also known as silkscreen
printing.
• Stencils are used to create the design or image.
• Silk, nylon, or a fine mesh is stretched on a
frame.
• The stencil is applied to the screen.
• Paint or ink is forced through the screen using a
squeegee.
Photo silkscreen - allows the artist to create
photographic images on the screen covered
with a light-sensitive gel.
• Almost looks like a photograph
transported into another medium
• Part of the image cropped off, like a
photograph
• Forms defined by razor sharp edges
• Serves as a symbol of contemporary
glamour
Monotype
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Although monotype is a printmaking type, it also
overlaps with the mediums of drawing and painting.
The product of monotype is a single, original work of
art.
Brushes are used, but the paint can also be scratched
off.
How:
1. The artist draws or paints with oil paint or watercolor
on a nonabsorbent surface.
2. Fine detail is added by scratching paint off with a sharp
implement.
3. Paper is pressed to the surface and the image is
transferred.
Figure 7.17, p.147 EDGAR DEGAS. The Ballet Master (c. 1874). Monotype in black ink. 22” x 27 1⁄2”.
• Has all the spontaneity of a drawing
and lushness of a painting