Four Types of Printmaking

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Four Types of Printmaking

• There are four main types of printmaking. The
  process and materials of these techniques
  influence the appearance of the final print.

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The Four Types of Printmaking are

• 1. Relief Printing
• 2. Intaglio (engraving)
• 3. Planography (lithography)
• 4. Stencil (Serigraphy)

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1. RELIEF PRINTING

• This is printing from a raised surface. A simple
  example of relief printing is a rubber stamp
  pressed into a stamp pad and pressed onto a piece
  of paper.

Mount Fuji, from the Thirty-six Views of Mount
Fuji, color woodcut by Katsushika Hokusai
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Relief Printing Plates

• are made from flat sheets of material such as
  wood, linoleum, cardboard, Styrofoam, etc.
• After drawing a picture on the surface, the
  artist uses tools to cut away the areas that will
  not print or builds up the surface that will
  print.

The basic concept of relief printing, where A
The block, or matrix, and B The paper. Note that
the thickness of the ink is greatly exaggerated
for illustrative purposes.
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Relief Printing - Tools

• A roller - called a brayer - is used to spread
  ink on the plate. A sheet of paper is placed on
  top of the plate and the image is transferred by
  rubbing with the hand or by being run through a a
  printing press.
• The completed print is a mirror image of the
  original plate.

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2. INTAGLIO

• This describes prints that are made by cutting
  the picture into the surface of the printing
  plate.
• Using a sharp V-shaped tool - called a burin -
  the printmaker gouges the lines of an image into
  the surface of a smooth polished sheet of metal
  (copper or zinc) or in some cases a piece of
  Plexiglas.
• These types of incisions are created by etching,
  engraving, dry point, aquatint or mezzotint.

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• Etching is the process of using strong acid or
  mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a
  metal surface to create a design in intaglio in
  the metal

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on
to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting
grooves into it.
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• Dry point -in which an image is incised into a
  plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle"
  of sharp metal or diamond point. Like etching,
  dry point is easier for an artist trained in
  drawing to master than engraving, as the
  technique of using the needle is closer to using
  a pencil than the engraver's burin.

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Intaglio Printing

• To make a print, ink is pushed into the lines of
  the design. The surface is then wiped clean so
  that the only areas with ink are the lines.
• A sheet of paper which has been soaked in water
  is then placed on the plate which is run through
  a printing press.

Depressions are cut into a printing plate. The
plate shown here is not to scale the grooves can
be fractions of a millimeter wide
The plate is covered in ink
The ink is wiped off the surface of the plate,
but remains in the grooves
The paper is removed, and the ink has been
transferred from the plate to the paper
Paper is placed on the plate and compressed, such
as by a heavy roller
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3. PLANOGRAPHY

• As we have just learned, relief prints are
  created from a raised surface, and intaglio
  prints are created from a cut surface.
• Planography however, is the printing of a flat
  surface.

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Planography - Lithography

• Lithography is the art of printing from a flat
  stone or metal plate by a method based on the
  simple fact that grease attracts grease as it
  repels water.

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Planography - Lithography Printing

• In Lithography an image is drawn on the surface
  with a greasy material - grease crayon - and then
  water and printing ink are applied. The greasy
  parts absorb the ink and the wet parts do not.

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4. STENCIL

• A stencil is a sheet of paper, fabric, plastic,
  metal or other material with designs cut, or
  punched from it.
• Ink is forced through the openings onto the
  surface to be printed.

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STENCIL Serigraphy

• (Seri means silk)
• Serigraphy, sometimes called silk screening, is a
  type of stencil printing.

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• A. Printing Ink
• B. Squeegee -45 degree angle
• C. Stencil image
• D. Stretched Silk or printing mesh
• E. Wooden Frame
• F. transferred image

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STENCIL Serigraphy

• A stencil is fastened to a sheet of silk which is
  tightly stretched across a wooden frame. The
  frame is placed against the material to be
  printed. A squeegee is used to push the ink
  through the open areas onto the material or
  paper below.

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• A related technique (which has found
  applicability in some surrealist compositions) is
  aerographic, in which spray-painting is done
  around a three-dimensional object. This technique
  is comparable to the paintings in caves dating
  over 10,000BC, where hands were used to create
  hand print outlines amongst other artwork, such
  as paintings of animals. The artist would spray
  pigment around his hand with his mouth. A hollow
  bone or reed may have also been employed to
  direct the stream of pigment.
• Also called Airbrush