See a comprehensive overview printmaking techniques: intaglio, relief, silkscreening, lithography, and more. Explained are the various techniques to provide depth and insight into the process of printmaking.
Discussion with Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Mia Rozear and Guest Artist Dorian Epps.
Video Walkthrough
- Printmaking techniques have an enormous range: printmaking that requires years of training and professional equipment, to printing at home with potato prints
- Printmaking is often known as “art for the people” since it made it possible for more people to afford prints at a lower price compared to paintings.
- Many printmaking processes require tons of diverse materials, as well as an understanding of the role each of those materials within each process.
- Craftsmanship in printmaking can be very challenging, you’d be surprised how hard it can be to pull a print that doesn’t have fingerprints on it!
- In the past many printmaking materials have been highly toxic, there has been a push for safter materials.
- An example would be using ferric chloride to etch copper plates, instead of using nitric acid to etch zinc plates.
- Some printmaking techniques require a press, while others can be done with hand printing.
- Techniques like lithography and intaglio require extensive training and a professional printshop to do.
- There is a community aspect to being a printmaker; working in a shop with others, sharing supplies and spaces.
- Printmaking requires a lot of patience, often if you want to print an edition of 5 prints you could find yourself printing 20 to get 5 that will work!
- No matter how much experience you have as a printmaking, there is constant troubleshooting in the process.
- There are many intaglio printmaking processes, and they are often used in combination with each other.
- There are both acid and non-acid processes in intaglio printmaking.
Techniques Mentioned
Lithography
- Lithographic Stones
- Aluminum Plates
- Photo Lithography
Intaglio
relief
- Rubber Stamps
- Linoleum Blocks
- Woodcut
- Wood Engraving
Image transfers
- Citrasolv
- Acrylic & Gelli Plates
- Wintergreen Oil
Collagraphs
Artists Mentioned
- John Baldessari
- Edward Bernstein
- Mary Cassatt
- Elizabeth Catlett
- Vija Celmins
- John Crome
- Honoré Daumier
- Edgar Degas
- Albrecht Dürer
- Eric Fischl
- Francisco Goya
- Edward Henderson
- Hokusai
- Sidney Hurwitz
- Käthe Kollwitz
- Michael Mazur
- Frederick Mershimer
- Barry Moser
- Rolf Nesch
- Chris Ofili
- Pablo Picasso
- Andrew Raftery
- Rembrandt
- Edward Stasack
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Kara Walker
- Mikio Watanabe
- James McNeill Whistler
Books Mentioned
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