Printmaking Techniques

AQUATINT – A difficult process of etching fine dusty pits onto a copper or zinc master plate. This gives the print the wash effect of a mater color or ink wash.

BLIND TECHNIQUE – White on white embossed texture applied to a print. The shadow effect enhances the print with highlights.

CARBOGRAPH - (Carborundum Mezzotint) Developed in Philadelphia by Dox Thrash. Cardorundom crystals are used to rough up the surface of a copper plate to make an etching.

DRYPOINT – Intaglio engraving technique that uses a steel needle to scratch a burred line with high sides that creates a raised soft line

ENGRAVING – A sharp steel engraving cutting tool is used on a metal plate. The lines are filled with ink and a heavy press is used to push the paper into the grooves. This gives the paper the characteristic dip in the paper around the engraving. This process is used in printing money.

ETCHING – A metal plate is covered with a wax acid resisting substance and the artist scratches away the wax with a steel needle. Then an acid is applied which only eats the parts of the metal plate that was exposed by the scratching. It is then treated as an engraving, ink is applied and forced into the recessed lines, paper is placed on top and great pressure is applied.

GICLEE – A digital reproduction technique sometimes called Iris Giclee. The artwork is scanned into a digital file capable of immense clarity. It is then printed on a large ink jet printer called a plotter. It uses pigment based inks even oil paint or acrylic paint. These printers can print on paper, plastic or canvas, and they are the state of the art.

MEZZOTINT – Uses a steel or copper plate processed in relief not recessed. The surface of the plate is roughed to accept ink, areas are smoothed out to resist the ink and produce a lighter area.

MONOTYPE – Each monotype is unique because each application of ink is applied to a sheet of glass and then a sheet of paper is applied to the wet ink on glass.

OFFSET LITHOGRAPH – (cromolithography) A photomechanical process where the image is transferred to four flexible metal negative plates (red, blue, yellow, and black), placed into a mechanical press and printed on paper. This process is for large volume printing but is cost effective.

POCHOIR - It is French for stencil. Often used in early 20th century fashion style design plates. The image is made by using a labor intensive stencil process directly onto paper. It is often assiciated with Art Nouveau and Deco styles. It was used in the orient but in the 15th century came to the west. In France during the period between 1900 and 1930 there were as many as 30 Pochoir studios. It was used by Braque, Utrillo and Serge Gladky.

STONE BLOCK LITHOGRAPHY – Images are drawn onto four inch thick Bavarian sandstone blocks with a black grease pencil. This is a wax resist process. Stones come in sets of two so they can be rubbed together to clean the stones and keep them flat and true for the next print.

SILK-SCREEN – Sometimes called a serigraph. A finely meshed silk screen is stretched within a frame. Separate colors are squeezed through the screen with a squeegee. There may be as many as one hundred separate screens to make one good silk-screen. Each screening represents one shade of color. Remarkable color and beauty but a lot of work.

ENHANCED – The artist may go back to a print and apply paint giving the feeling that the print is an original, which in a way it is. This added work by the artist can add texture and a painterly impasto to the print.

CANVAS TRANSFER – A lithograph can be transferred to a canvas without the paper on the back of the print. A solution is applied to the paper that dissolves it, a second solution is applied to the ink surface. And it is transferred as a transparency to the canvas.

REMARQUE – This is a drawing done by the artist at the base of the print in the white area which picks up the theme of the print and adds importance and value to that print.

EDITION – This is the authorized number of prints in an edition, it includes (A.P.) artist’s proofs, hors de commerce examples (H.C.) outside of usual commerce (samples), (P.P.) printers proofs. There are odd edition extensions not often used like the (E.A.) edition de artist, a payment to the artist of prints by the commissioner of the edition. There is also the curious European Edition which uses roman numerals instead of Arabic numbers, and follows a short edition. This has always struck me as a solution to fix a shortsighted problem, in other words to extend a short edition.