CHAPTER 10

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PRINTMAKING

 A print is defined as a single impression of an image that has

been transferred through pressure onto paper from a matrix,
or the surface upon which the design has been created. A
single matrix can be used to create many virtually identical
impressions.
An edition is the collection of these multiple impressions.
Since the late 1800s, artists number their editions and sign
them.
Often artists reserve a small additional number of proofs, or
trial impressions made before the final edition is run, for
personal use. An artist proof is labeled AP, while the
prints in the edition are labeled with a fraction the number
of the unique print on top, and the total edition number on
the bottom. For example, if an edition of 100 prints is made,
then the first is numbered: 1/100, the second: 2/100, etc.

Frontispiece, Diamond Sutra from Cave 17, Dunhuang,

printed in the ninth year of the Xiantong Era of the Tang
Dynasty, 868 CE.
Ink on paper, woodblock handscroll.

Johannes Gutenberg, page

from the Gutenberg Bible,
1455-56.
Text printed with movable
letters and hand-painted
initials and marginalia.

The Five basic processes of

printmaking are:
Relief
Woodcuts, linocuts, wood engravings

Intaglio
Engraving, etching, drypoint, mezzotint, aquatint

Lithography
Alois Senefelder, planographic medium

Serigraphy
Monotype

Relief
The term relief refers to any printmaking process in which
the image to be printed is raised off the background in
reverse. The media for relief prints are one of the following:
Woodcut: a relief process in which a wooden block is carved
so that those parts not intended to print are cut away, leaving
the design raised (like a stamp). The resulting print is called a
woodcut.
Linocut: similar to a woodcut, but with a block of linoleum
that is carved to leave the desired image raised. The resulting
print is called a linocut.
Wood engraving: is actually a relief printing technique (not
to be confused with engraving from intaglio, which is done
on a metal plate). The wood engraving is cut into the end
grain of the wood, which is much harder. This allows the artist
to cut very fine detailed lines, and to also cut them in any
direction, regardless of the woods grain.

Emil Nolde, Prophet, 1912,

12 x 8 inches.
Woodcut. Note the texture of
the wood grain showing
through the large dark areas.
The rough cuts into the
wood create an expressive
form of texture that
influences the emotional
attitude of the piece.

Visual representation of relief block and the resulting

impression.

Cutting a linocut. The image is planned and drawn onto the

block, and then the artist makes several small cuts around the
drawing, so that all of the white areas are cut away.

Inking a woodblock during the printing process. The block is

inked with a roller, so that it rolls along all of the high points
that have not been cut away.

Relief prints can be printed with a printing press (seen on the left), or
they can be printed by hand with a barren (seen on the right; barren
shown in center). In the printing press, the inked block has paper
laid on it, and it is run under a roller that is tightened for pressure. If
done by hand, the printmaker applies the pressure, pushing the
barren over the paper that is laid on top of the inked block.

Tom Huck, The Transformation of Brandy Baghead,

2007-2009, 82 x 24 inches.
Woodcut printed on paper.

Tom Huck, The Transformation of Brandy

Baghead, detail.

Tom Huck, master

printer and troublemaker.

Kitagawa Utamaro, Shaving a

Boys Head, c. 1795, 15 x
10 inches.
Color woodblock print.

Cyril E. Power, The Tube Train,

1934, 12 x 12 inches.
Color linocut, completed
edition print on very thin offwhite Asian paper.
Note the need for careful
registration, as each color is a
separate block that is cut only
for that part of the total
image.
This print would be run
through the printing press a
total of four times, once with
a linocut that used yellow ink,
again with a linocut using red
ink, again with a linocut using
blue ink, and finally with the
last detailed image using
black ink.

J.W. Powell, Noon-Day Rest in Marble

Canyon, from Exploration of the Colorado
River of the West, 1875.
Wood engraving.
A wood engraving is cut on the end-grain of
a piece of wood, rather than on the smooth
side. The harder end-grain can be cut in
any direction without fear of splintering.
The artist can cut an extremely detailed
image using very thin white lines (cut
lines) that can be cross-hatched in any
direction. By the late 1800s, woodcut
illustration had reached a level of
extraordinary sophistication. This wood
engraving was cut by a master engraver
based on a sketch from the artist, which
was drawn on site. (Remember that
drawing illustration used to be the most
direct way of recording information, as in
this exploration of new lands.)

Intaglio

Intaglio is any form of printmaking in which the line is

incised (cut) into the surface of the printing plate. The line
that is cut into the plate (traditionally metal, but sometimes
plastic or other materials) is the line that will hold ink and
print onto paper the opposite of relief.
Common forms of intaglio are:
Engraving
Etching
Drypoint
Mezzotint
Aquatint

Engraving

In engraving, lines are cut or incised into the plate with a

tool called a burin.
These cut lines will fill with ink through the winking process,
and then they will transfer to paper and create a print
through immense pressure on a printing press.

Albrecht Drer, Adam and

Eve, 1471-1528, Fourth
State, 1504, 9 x 7
inches.
Engraving.
Prints can be printed as
the artist develops the
image, so that multiple
stages can exist of the
image at the same time.
This fourth state
represents the image in
completion. Page 212 on
your textbook shows
previous states.

The United States currency is printed through the

intaglio process.

Etching

In etching, the metal plate is covered with a resist, or

protective coating that is resistant to acid. Then the plate
is drawn upon with a sharp tool, which removes the resist in
localized areas, according to the desired design.
The metal plate is then placed in an acid bath, and the acid
chemically reacts with the exposed metal of the design.
The acid bites into the plate, eating away the metal
where the lines have been drawn.
After removing the plate from the acid, the resist is
removed, and then the plate is inked and printed. The
resulting print is called an etching.

This zinc plate has been

coated with a resist, and
the design is in progress.
The artist uses a sharp tool,
often referred to as an
etching needle, to
delicately scratch off areas
of the resist to form the
lines of the image.

Once the design was

finished, the plate was
etched in acid, which set
the design permanently
into the metal plate.
The plate was inked and
printed, resulting in the
black and white image.
The red background was
hand-painted onto the
print later (not a
printmaking technique).

Rembrandt van Rijn, The

Angel Appearing to the
Shepherds, 1634, 10 x
8 inches.
Etching on paper.

Yuji Hiratsuka, Epicure

Extravaganza, 2011, 30 x 24
inches.
4-color intaglio (etching and
aquatint) on Japanese Kozo
(mulberry) paper. Remember,
this is a 4-color print, so there
are actually 4 different plates
that were made to all register
together, and then they were
inked separately with the
different colors, and printed
one at a time on top of one
another.

Drypoint

Drypoint is an intaglio process in which the plate

(traditionally metal, but sometimes plastic or other
materials) is incised by a needle pulled back across the
surface, leaving a burr.

The scratch marks of the needle tool do cut into the surface
somewhat, but the delicate burr does rise slightly above the
surface.

The lines of a drypoint print are often more velvety and

blurry than those of etching or engraving. During the
wiping in the inking process, the burr traps greater amounts
of ink, which hover around the lines, causing this effect.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Three Crosses, 1653.

Drypoint print. Drypoint lines create a specific velvety texture
from the way the burr holds the ink.

Mary Cassatt, The Bath,

1890-91,
14 x 10 inches.
Drypoint and aquatint on laid
paper.
It is clear from this image the
strong visual influence that
Japanese woodblocks had over
European prints in the
nineteenth century.

Mezzotint

In this intaglio printmaking process the metal plate is

ground all over with a mezzotint rocker, leaving a burr all
over the surface that if inked would be a rich dark black.

The surface is then lightened to a greater or lesser degree

by scraping and smoothing away the burr.

The plate is then inked and printed, and the resulting print
is called a mezzotint.

Mezzotints appear to use more continuous tones of value,

rather than the lines and cross hatching of other intaglio
processes.

Mezzotint rockers (left).

A mezzotint rocker working
across the surface of a copper
plate (above).

Prince Rupert, The

Standard Bearer, 1658, 11
x 11 inches.
Mezzotint. Note the soft
areas of dark; mezzotints
blacks are velvety like
drypoint lines, but
mezzotints give the effect
of a large tonal area of
black, rather than linework.

Jayne Reid Jackson

Cursing the Dark, 2005
Mezzotint, 9 x 7

Aquatints

An aquatint is an intaglio printmaking process that utilizes

acid, as in etching.
However, unlike the specific linear quality of etching,
aquatints are more granular, and result in large shapes of
inked value.
This results from the resist used: rather than covering the
plate evenly with a solid resist, aquatints protect the plate
from acid through the use of a powdered material that only
covers half of the surface area of the plate in a fine mist.
Imagine spraying the metal plate with a light coat of spray
paint, rather than brushing the resist directly on.
The acid eats into all of the small exposed dots of metal,
and those are what holds the ink in the printing process.
Aquatints are often combined with etched lines, to
complete a more detailed and specific design.

Parts of the metal plate are painted with a solid resist, so they will not
be etched with the aquatint. They are blocked from the acid by the
resist. The background is then sprayed with a even mist of spray paint
(see detail on right), which will cause the acid to eat in all of the evenly
distributed little dots around the paint. Once inked, this area will
appear to be a grainy, tonal shape, rather than a series of lines creating
the darker tones.

Jane Dickson, Stairwell, 1984,

35 x 22 inches.
Aquatint on Rives BFK paper.
This is a rather grainy aquatint,
and you can almost see where
the individual particles of rosin
blocked the metal from the acid.

Francisco Goya y Lucientes,

The Sleep of Reason
Produces Monsters, 1797.
Etching, aquatint, and
drypoint.
The lightly grayed
background is the aquatint.
The figure asleep at the
desk, along with all of the
birds and monsters, are
added with etched lines and
drypoint lines. The lightness
of this aquatint is achieved
by etching the plate in the
acid for a short time: all of
the little cuts in the
background are very shallow,
and will hold less ink.

Lithography
Lithography is the main planographic printmaking process,
meaning that the surface is flat. The ink that collects on the
surface does not rely on any cuts or differences in height. There
is no raised or depressed surface on the plate to hold the ink.
Alois Senefelder invented lithography in the 1790s in Munich,
Germany (by accident!).
Lithography is the printmaking process in which polished stone,
often limestone, is drawn upon with a greasy material; the
surface is moistened and then inked. The ink adheres only to the
greasy lines of the drawing, and the design is transferred to
dampened paper in the printing press.
Lithography offers a wide array of mark making to the artist.
Drawn images may be full of line work, brush strokes (as in
brush/wash, or pen/ink), tonal modeling that shows no line work,
and more.

Drawing done on limestone in a greasy material. This image

will be processed and printed, resulting in a lithograph.

Left: a printer rolls the stone up with ink, preparing to print the
image.
Right: a print is pulled from the stone, creating a lithograph.
Note: these are not the same stones, so they do have very
different images on them.

Honor Daumier, Rue Transnonian, April 15, 1834,

1834, 11 x 17 inches.
Lithograph.

Robert Rauschenberg,
Accident, 1963, 40 x 28
inches.
Lithograph.
The stone broke while
printing, but Rauschenberg
re-negotiated his intent and
used the broken pieces to
print. The large white
diagonal through the piece
shows the break point.

Serigraphy

Serigraphy is the formal term for silkscreen prints, or screen

prints.

Unlike other printing media, there is no expensive, heavy

machinery required to make it.

In serigraphy, the image is transferred to paper by forcing

ink through a mesh screen. Areas that are not meant to
print in ink are blocked out (much like stenciling).

Serigraphy is the newest form of printmaking but the

stenciling concepts that is uses are some of the oldest
image making techniques.

Ink is forced through the mesh screen with a squeegee.

Andy Warhol
Various forms of Marilyn.
Serigraphs.
Note Warhols playful use of color, moving away from the representational
and into the abstract. He furthers this break with reality by his intentional
use of mis-registration, where the layers of color do not match up
correctly, revealing the surface quality of the image.

Roger Shimomura, Enter the Rice Cooker, 1994, 37

x 41 inches.
Color screen print on Saudners 410 gram HP.

Monotypes

Monotypes have much in common with painting and

drawing. However, they are classified as printmaking
because they use both a plate and a press to create the
image.

Unlike other printing processes, however, a monotype is a

unique image. Once it is printed, it can never be printed
again.

To make a monotype, an artist forms an image on a plate

with printers inks or paints, and the image is transferred to
paper under pressure, usually by means of an etching
press.

Michael Mazur
Untitled
Monotype

Margaret Simpson
A Rabbits Progress, 2002.
Monotype
Note the expressive and
painterly quality of the
image. It looks closer to a
painting than most of the
prints we have seen.

Fritz Scholder, Dream Horse

G, 1986, 30 x 22 inches.
Monotype.
Note the almost painterly
quality to the ink, which is
easy to achieve fro the direct
nature of monotypes.