Printmaking Techniques

Relief Prints

One of the oldest techniques of printing an image onto a surface is that of relief printing. Seals of clay or stone date back to Antiquity. The technique of inking a raised surface and stamping it onto another surface such as paper is still in use today. Rubber stamps are the most familiar examples of relief printing.

The materials most commonly used to make relief prints are wood, stone and (more recently) manufactured materials such as linoleum. In a relief print, those parts of the surface which are not intended to be printed are removed or cut away. The image which is to be printed is then said to be "in relief" and when printed, the image will print in reverse.

Intaglio Prints

In the intaglio technique, a line is incised onto a surface (usually a metal surface such as a copper, zinc or steel plate), and is therefore below that surface. This incised line can be produced with burins (strong metal points) or other tools. The line can also be etched by the action of acid. The plate is then coated with ink, and wiped clean so as to leave ink only in the incised lines. Dampened paper is then placed onto the plate, and both plate and paper are passed through a wringer-type of press (between rollers). The paper is pressed into the incised lines and absorbs the ink.

The term intaglio is a generic one and includes various techniques such as engraving, drypoint, etching and aquatint. In an engraving, a line is incised directly onto the plate with a burin. The burr that is created by the action of the burin is removed from the plate and the printed result is a clean line. In a drypoint, the burr is not removed from the plate and when printed, the burr (also carrying ink) affects the quality of the line so that it appears more irregular, almost fuzzy. In an etching, the plate is first covered with an acid-resistant material. A needle is then used to incise the drawing into the ground, thus exposing the metal beneath it. When placed in an acid bath, the action of the acid etches the metal. The resulting line is directly related to the type of ground used and the time the plate is left in the acid bath. In the aquatint technique, resin particles are dusted onto an area, and when the plate is heated, the dusted particles are acid resistant. The printed result is a finely dotted area. Another intaglio technique is that of the mezzotint. In this case, the metal surface is completely marked with a dense network of lines, usually accomplished with a tool called a rocker. When printed at this stage, the plate would print completely black. The artist then burnishes the plate in certain areas, that is he smooths out parts of the incised metal surface. These smooth areas will not print. In a mezzotint, an artist is working from dark to light, and the effect can be quite dramatic.

There are many combinations of various intaglio techniques possible, and many variations have been devised over the ages so that virtually any desired visual effect can be created.

Lithography

Invented about 200 years ago —1798— lithography is often described as a planographic printmaking technique because all of the printed image is printed from a single flat surface. The basic principle is that of the insolubility of grease and water, and the affinity of grease to ink. Essentially, a drawing is made on a smooth flat stone surface (lithos means stone in Greek) with a greasy pencil. The stone surface is then coated with a solution of gum arabic and a few drops of nitric oxide which will not adhere to the grease of the drawing but will adhere to the stone and make it hydrophilic (attracted to water). When the stone is wetted, and inked, the ink will adhere to the grease of the drawing but not to the wetted stone. The stone is then pressed onto paper, and the ink on the grease of the drawing will be printed on paper. Again, the description here is greatly simplified and many refinements to the technique are possible.

Stencil Printing

The most common method of stencil printmaking is that of silk-screen printing or serigraphy. Here, ink is pressed through a stencil and printed onto paper. In the silk-screen process, a screen is used and a stencil applied to the bottom of the screen. The ink is then dragged across the screen over a sheet of paper and is thus transferred onto the parts of the paper that are not protected or covered by the stencil.

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