Four Types of Printmaking There are four main

Four Types of Printmaking There are four main types of printmaking. The process and materials of these techniques influence the appearance of the final print.

The Four Types of Printmaking are: 1. Relief Printing 2. Intaglio (engraving) 3. Planography (lithography) 4. Stencil (Serigraphy)

1. RELIEF PRINTING Mount Fuji, from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, color woodcut by Katsushika Hokusai This is printing from a raised surface. A simple example of relief printing is a rubber stamp pressed into a stamp pad and pressed onto a piece of paper.

Relief Printing Plates The basic concept of relief printing, where A: The block, or matrix, and B: The paper. Note that the thickness of the ink is greatly exaggerated for illustrative purposes. are made from flat sheets of material such as wood, linoleum, cardboard, Styrofoam, etc. After drawing a picture on the surface, the artist uses tools to cut away the areas that will not print or builds up the surface that will print.

Relief Printing Tools A roller - called a brayer - is used to spread ink on the plate. A sheet of paper is placed on top of the plate and the image is transferred by rubbing with the hand or by being run through a a printing press. The completed print is a mirror image of the original plate.

2. INTAGLIO This describes prints that are made by cutting the picture into the surface of the printing plate. Using a sharp V-shaped tool - called a burin the printmaker gouges the lines of an image into the surface of a smooth polished sheet of metal (copper or zinc) or in some cases a piece of Plexiglas. These types of incisions are created by etching, engraving, dry point, aquatint or mezzotint.

n Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it.

n Dry point -in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hardpointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. Like etching, dry point is easier for an artist trained in drawing to master than engraving, as the technique of using the needle is closer to using a pencil than the engraver's burin.

Intaglio Printing Depressions are cut into a printing plate. The plate shown here is not to scale: the grooves can be fractions of a millimeter wide To make a print, ink is pushed into the lines of the design. The surface is then wiped clean so that the only areas with ink are the lines. A sheet of paper which has been soaked in water is then placed on the plate which is run through a printing press. The plate is covered in ink The ink is wiped off the surface of the plate, but remains in the grooves Paper is placed on the plate and compressed, such as by a heavy roller The paper is removed, and the ink has been transferred from the plate to the paper

3. PLANOGRAPHY As we have just learned, relief prints are created from a raised surface, and intaglio prints are created from a cut surface. Planography however, is the printing of a flat surface.

Planography - Lithography is the art of printing from a flat stone or metal plate by a method based on the simple fact that grease attracts grease as it repels water.

Planography Lithography Printing In Lithography an image is drawn on the surface with a greasy material - grease crayon - and then water and printing ink are applied. The greasy parts absorb the ink and the wet parts do not.

4. STENCIL A stencil is a sheet of paper, fabric, plastic, metal or other material with designs cut, or punched from it. Ink is forced through the openings onto the surface to be printed.

STENCIL: Serigraphy (Seri means silk) Serigraphy, sometimes called silk screening, is a type of stencil printing.

n n n A. Printing Ink B. Squeegee -45 degree angle C. Stencil image D. Stretched Silk or printing mesh E. Wooden Frame F. transferred image

STENCIL: Serigraphy A stencil is fastened to a sheet of silk which is tightly stretched across a wooden frame. The frame is placed against the material to be printed. A squeegee is used to push the ink through the open areas onto the material or paper below.

n n A related technique (which has found applicability in some surrealist compositions) is aerographic, in which spray-painting is done around a three-dimensional object. This technique is comparable to the paintings in caves dating over +10, 000 BC, where hands were used to create hand print outlines amongst other artwork, such as paintings of animals. The artist would spray pigment around his hand with his mouth. A hollow bone or reed may have also been employed to direct the stream of pigment. Also called: Airbrush