Prints

Prints can certainly be confusing, are they "real" art.

What's the difference between a lithograph and a serigraph?

An engraving and an etching?

What is an Original Print?

Maybe you know, but maybe......you think of it as being a photographic reproduction.  An Original Print it is not a photographic reproduction.

An original work of art on paper has been conceived by the artist right up front by drawing or carving a composition on a hard surface such as a wood block, metal plate or stone.

The surface is then inked and the image is transferred to paper, by applied pressure, thus an impression or print is created.

Each print or impression is "pulled" from the surface by the artist, numbered and signed.

Artists began to sign and number impressions about the start of the 20th century.

SUMMARY OF TECHNIQUES

Each method yields a distinctive look.  The artist chooses a technique or combination of techniques depending on the specific effect they desire.

Here's a brief description.

RELIEF PRINTING

You sketch on a hard flat surface i.e. wood block, pieces are carved away from the surface, leaving sketch in "relief".

You apply ink to raised surface with a roller or other means.

The image is transferred to paper with a press or by hand burnishing (rubbing).

Relief has strong and bold dark - light contrasts.

Relief techniques are "woodcut", "wood engravings" and "linocut".

INTAGLIO PRINTING.

Acid or a pointed tool is used to incise the composition into a metal plate.

You cover the plat with ink, (be careful with that white carpet).

Now wipe so that only the incised areas contain ink.

Damp sheet of paper is applied to the plate, both are run through a press.

Normally the paper is larger than the plate, the pressure of the press against the paper creates what is known as a platemark.

Intaglio techniques are "Engraving" "Drypoint", "Mezzotint", "Etching", Aquatint", and "Spitbite Aquatint", these are all "Intaglio Techniques" and are frequently used in combination to achieve variations in contrast and tone., (more about these later).

PLANOGRAPHIC PRINTING.

Here the pressure applies is much lighter than a press, if indeed there is a pressure at all.

The ink is neither pressed down into the paper nor raised above the surface of the paper, but lies in flat plane on the surface.

Planographic techniques include "Lithography", Serigraphy", and "Pochoir".

Monoprints, monotypes, screenprints, digital prints, and counter proofs are examples of prints by "Planographic".

For those that require a more in depth study here goes.

I love writing about "Printing" they are a lot of fun to do.  (Dick Blick, has a wealth of information). Please click on image below.

WOODCUT

These were seen in Ninth-Century China.

Western Artrists appeared around the Fourteenth Century.

Japanese Artists using these techniques reached a high exceptional level of Artistic Achievement, known as "Ukiyo-E" period.

Woodcut uses a side-grained plank of wood in which the non-printing areas of the composition are cut away below the surface with a knife or gouge. Color woodcuts involve the use of separate blocks of each color.

Multiple blocks can be enormously complex with overlapping.

Artists in Provincetown, U.S.A., worked in "White Line Woodcuts" around 1915.  The technique is as follows:  cutting a groove between each color in the composition, the artists were able to produce a color woodcut from a single block.  Maybe you see right now how the "White Line" method works.

The desired colors are painted on the raised areas, while the groove devoid of color prints "blank"  line delimiting each area of color.

HOW ABOUT "SIGNATURES".

Early works were not signed.

About the Fifteenth Century many artists indicated their authorship of a print by incorporating a signature or monogram into the matrix design.  This is called a plate signature or signed in the plate.

The practice of signing one's work in pencil or ink did not really become common practice until the 1880's

WHAT DOES SIGNED MEAN?

When a print is described simply as "signed" it should mean that it is signed in pencil, ink or crayon; a plate signature (see above) should not be described as "signed".

PRINTERS PR0OFS

The artist would sometimes give the printer several first runs as a bonus or payment.

TRIAL PROOF

Look at first impressions, and if necessary make adjustments.  You may do this several times and you may well end up with several "Trials".

Impressions Annotated H.C. are supposedly "not for sale".

Publishers use such impressions as Exhibition Copies, thereby the numbered impressions are saved from rough usage.

PROOFS

Today artists get paid for their editions, but way back the artist commissioned to execute a print was provided with lodging, living expenses, plus was given a portion of the edition (to sell), hence called "Artists Proofs".  Nothing special about these.

MONOTYPE/MONOPRINT.

These two are used interchangeably, but should not be.

These are prints that have an edition of one, although a second weaker can be taken.

A "Monotype", is made by drawing a design in printing ink on any smooth surface, then covering that matrix with a sheet of paper and passing it through a press.  The result image will be an exact reversal of the original drawing.

This should produce an impression different in appearance from a conventionally printed impression from the same plate.

Every monoprint impression will be different, since it is virtually impossible to manipulate the additional ink in  exactly the same way for each impression.

WHAT IS A "POCHOIT".

It is a direct method of adding hand-coloring to an impression through a stencil.

The stencil can be thin coated paper. paperboard, plastic or metal and ink or paint is applied with a brush through the stencil to the paper beneath.

MEZZOTINT.

This is another "Intaglio"m technique used to create areas of tone or shadow rather than lines.

This is the way to produce a "Mezzotint".

The surface of the plate is abrabed by a spiked tool (rocker) so that, if inked at that point, the entire plate would print in solid black.  You then work from Black to White by scraping or burnishing areas so that they will hold less or no ink, producing modulated tones.

LINOCUT

Is a variation of the woodcut technique.

You cut into the surface of "Lineloeum", I back mine with wood for reinforcement.

Area's which are not to receive ink are carved away, each color has it's own separate block.

Smooth surface rather than a woodgrain look is obtained, in the printed areas.

LITHOGRAPHY.

Is more or less a stone drawing.

You draw with a greasy crayon or liquid, on a stone flat surface.

Fix the design with a "weak" solution of acid and gum arabic.

In printing the stone is flooded with water which is absorbed everywhere except where repelled by the greasy ink.

Now roll "oil-based" printers ink on the stone, which is repelled in turn by the water soaked area and accepted only by the drawn design.

Run the stone through a press with light pressure only, the final print showing neither a raised nor embossed quality but lying entirely on the surface of the paper.

You can divide the design among several stones to produce a lithograph in more than one color.

A "Transfer Lithogrphy" means you draw on specially prepared transfer paper with a lithographic crayon and it later is mechanically transferred to the stone.

ZINCOGRAPH.

Same as a lithograph but users a zinc plate instead of stone.

SCREENPRINT (SERIGRAPHY).

In this process, a separate screen is required for each color in your composition and the same piece of paper must be printed with each of them in turn.

For each screen, a pattern of fabric or paper is cut and attached to the mesh to block the flow of that particular color to the sheet of paper beneath it.

A squeegee is used to force the paint through the exposed areas of the mesh. This is a "Serigraph", a term used to distinguish between commercial and artistic screen printing.

COUNTER PROOFS

You make these by placing a dampened sheet of paper on top of a pastel and applying pressure to transfer the pastel image

DIGITAL PRINT.

Lets clear up this type of print, as this is now coming into use more often you should understand the following.

Artists who use a computer to create or manipulate their works often use a large-scale ink jet printer.

The distinction as to whether a digital print is an "Original Print" is determined by whether the work was created by the artist to be realized as a print.

NOTE:  A digital Print of a work that originated as a painting or drawing is a "Reproduction" not an "Original Print".

Now you should know, the difference and don't be mislead into buying something that's not.

You've probably realized that an original print is NOT a mechanical copy of anything.  It's a one-of-a-kind creation, handmade specifically to be a print.

BE ON YOUR GUARD.

Unfortunately, though, any printed image can be called a print, some vendors trade on this to suggest that signed reproduction, "Certified" as "Authentic" are original.

THIS IS NONSENSE.

Reproductions have very little value, and no intrinsic artistic merit and with a few exceptions are about re-saleable as used eight track tapes.

A word about "Limited Editions" guess what they just stopped the printer at an agreed number.  What a Deal!

I don't think so.

All you know you have a mechanically reproduced print with a number on it, maybe out of a thousand that were produced.   The only comfort you have knowing there are only 999 prints in existence.

On the other hand an Original Print could be the only one.

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