1. CHAPTER 10 ___________________________ PRINTMAKING

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

5. 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

6. 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 wood’s grain.

7. Emil Nolde, Prophet, 1912, 12⅝ x 8⅞ inches. Woodcut
Emil Nolde, Prophet, 1912, 12⅝ x 8⅞ 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.

8. Visual representation of relief block and the resulting impression.

9. 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.

10. Inking a woodblock during the printing process
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.

11. 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.

12. Tom Huck, The Transformation of Brandy Baghead, 2007-2009, 82 x 24 inches. Woodcut printed on paper.

13. Tom Huck, The Transformation of Brandy Baghead, detail.

14. Tom Huck, master printer and trouble-maker.

15. Kitagawa Utamaro, Shaving a Boy’s Head, c. 1795, 15⅛ x 10¼ inches
Kitagawa Utamaro, Shaving a Boy’s Head, c. 1795, 15⅛ x 10¼ inches. Color woodblock print.

16. Cyril E. Power, The Tube Train, 1934, 12¼ x 12¾ inches
Cyril E. Power, The Tube Train, 1934, 12¼ x 12¾ inches. Color linocut, completed edition print on very thin off-white 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.

17. J.W. Powell, Noon-Day Rest in Marble Canyon, from Exploration of the Colorado River of the West, 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.)

18. 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

19. 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.

20. Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, , Fourth State, 1504, 9⅞ x 7⅝ 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.

21. The United States currency is printed through the intaglio process.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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).

25. Rembrandt van Rijn, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, 1634, 10¼ x 8½ inches. Etching on paper.

26. Yuji Hiratsuka, Epicure Extravaganza, 2011, 30 x 24 inches
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.

27. 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.

28. Rembrandt van Rijn, Three Crosses, 1653. Drypoint print
Rembrandt van Rijn, Three Crosses, Drypoint print. Drypoint lines create a specific velvety texture from the way the burr holds the ink.

30. Mary Cassatt, The Bath, 1890-91, 14½ x 10¾ inches
Mary Cassatt, The Bath, , 14½ x 10¾ 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.

32. 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.

33. Mezzotint rockers (left)
Mezzotint rockers (left). A mezzotint rocker working across the surface of a copper plate (above).

34. Prince Rupert, The Standard Bearer, 1658, 11 x 11⅞ inches. Mezzotint
Prince Rupert, The Standard Bearer, 1658, 11 x 11⅞ inches. Mezzotint. Note the soft areas of dark; mezzotint’s blacks are velvety like drypoint lines, but mezzotints give the effect of a large tonal area of black, rather than linework.

35. Jayne Reid Jackson Cursing the Dark, 2005 Mezzotint, 9” x 7”

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. Jane Dickson, Stairwell, 1984, 35¾ x 22¾ inches
Jane Dickson, Stairwell, 1984, 35¾ x 22¾ 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.

39. Francisco Goya y Lucientes, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 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.

40. 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.

41. Drawing done on limestone in a greasy material
Drawing done on limestone in a greasy material. This image will be processed and printed, resulting in a lithograph.

42. 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.

43. Honoré Daumier, Rue Transnonian, April 15, 1834, 1834, 11½ x 17⅝ inches. Lithograph.

44. Robert Rauschenberg, Accident, 1963, 40 x 28½ inches. Lithograph
Robert Rauschenberg, Accident, 1963, 40 x 28½ 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.

45. 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.

46. Ink is forced through the mesh screen with a squeegee.

47. Andy Warhol Various forms of Marilyn. Serigraphs
Andy Warhol Various forms of Marilyn. Serigraphs. Note Warhol’s 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.

48. Roger Shimomura, Enter the Rice Cooker, 1994, 37 x 41 inches
Roger Shimomura, Enter the Rice Cooker, 1994, 37 x 41 inches. Color screen print on Saudners 410 gram HP.

49. 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 printer’s inks or paints, and the image is transferred to paper under pressure, usually by means of an etching press.

50. Michael Mazur Untitled Monotype

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

52. Fritz Scholder, Dream Horse G, 1986, 30 x 22 inches. Monotype
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.