Printing or Print Making

Is the process of creating artwork by printing, typically on paper, fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. It is also an art form using a process for reproducing images that involve the transfer of ink from a plate or woodblock to paper, canvas, or other surface that will ultimately hold the work of art.

Print Roller & Ink Plate

Printing or Print Making in the visual arts is defined as:

verb
1. transfer (a colored design or pattern) to a surface.
2. Mark or indent (the surface of a soft substance).
3. make (a mark or indentation) on a surface or in a soft substance by pressing something onto it.
4. write (text) clearly without joining the letters or handwriting in which the letters are written separately rather than being joined together.

Types

Include the following.


Printing or Print

Is a work of graphic art conceived by the artist to be realized as an original work of art rather than a copy of a work in another medium.

Prints are produced by drawing or carving an image onto a hard surface (known as a matrix) such as a wood block, metal plate, or stone.



Monotype

Is a one-of-a-kind print that will exist in its own 'unique state.' It starts with a clean surface (for example, glass, gelatin plate, perspex), then adding ink or paint and working the surface to create an image before taking an impression on paper. This technique works beautifully when adding layers of color and texture to one print.

It allows considerable freedom and is also known as the most painterly method among printmaking techniques. Monotypes are a pulled impression from a blank smooth, non-absorbent plate with no permanent markings or incisions. The directness of painting onto the plate requires skills in drawing and painting, a sure hand, and a considerable degree of spontaneity. Unlike most printmaking, it is where multiple prints may be created by re-inking a plate that has been engraved.


Monotype and monoprint are sometimes used interchangeably because both involve the transfer of water-based or oil-based ink onto paper using a transfer process or a press. However, a monotype is a truly unique image once the print is made and the ink is gone.



Monoprint

Is a one-of-a-kind print that forms part of a series. Each finished print varies to the other, but a common element is present in each print.

It may be made the same way as a monotype but is one of a series; therefore, only partially unique. One image may be pulled from the plate. However, a secondary or third less contrasted image may be pulled from the same plate afterward. This is called a 'ghost' image. It will have the same shapes but different values.

Monotype and monoprint are sometimes used interchangeably because both involve the transfer of water-based or oil-based ink onto paper using a transfer process or a press. However, a monoprint may be made in the same way as a monotype but is one of a series. Therefore not wholly unique as a monotype is truly unique.

Reference

Wikipedia. (2020, December 28). Brayer. Retrieved February 28, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brayer

Terminology

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Offsetting

Is a manner for printing that uses an intermediary roller that picks up the inked image and, in the transferring, reverses it to the right way round. The advantage for the artist is that when they make their drawing, they do not have to reverse it.


Brayer

Historically, it is a hand tool used in printing and printmaking to break up and "rub out" ink before it was "beaten" using inking balls or composition rollers.

The word is derived from the verb "bray," meaning "to break, pound, or grind small, as in a mortar."

Brayer, Ink Plate & Ink

Woodcut

Is a printing method. A woodcut is a relief printing using a plank or long grain of wood. It is an old printmaking method introduced during the Middle Ages in Europe.

Hans Holbein the Younger and Albrecht Durer were among the talented early users. The process was also developed by later artists such as Paul Gauguin and the Norwegian Edvard Munch.


Linocut

Is a printing method. A linocut is a relief method where the block used for printing is made from high-grade linoleum. Cutters are small gouges that are fitted into a handle like nibs into a penholder.

'Knight, Death and the Devil' by Albrecht Durer, a line engraving carried out in 1513, is probably one of the greatest masterpieces in this method. Note his control of almost velvet-like tone areas.


Engraving

Is the process of incising a design into a plate block used to make an impression. It encompasses various methods, such as Aquatint, Drypoint, Etching, Intaglio, Line Engraving, Mezzotint, Relief Print, and Woodcut.


Etching

It is made from a plate, generally, copper or zinc, where the material is removed or scratched to make a permanent mark. The plate must be meticulously prepared first; the surface must be without blemish.


Intaglio

Lines and areas are sunk into the plate to take the ink instead of relief, where the printing areas are left upstanding.

Resources

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Books on Printing


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