Relief, intaglio, and planographic (lithography and screenprinting) are the main printmaking techniques. Relief involves cutting away areas to leave a design standing in relief, like woodcut. Intaglio techniques such as engraving and etching cut lines below the surface to hold ink. Planographic techniques do not involve a raised or incised surface, instead using the absorption of ink on a flat surface like stone or screen. Within these categories, different materials and tools produce varied aesthetic effects that have been used by artists over centuries to create unique and widely disseminated works.

1. Printmaking

2. 1
Relief
Relief print
Example in fingerprints, rubber stamps,
and wet tires Relief process
Artist creates matrix by cutting away
Leaves design “in relief” Tools
Gouges, Knives, Chisels
Utagawa Hiroshige. Shono Hakuu (Light
Rain at Shono), number 46. 1832–33.
Full-color woodcut. 8-7/8” × 13-3/4”.

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Woodcut
Woodcuts or woodblocks
Lends itself to bold black-and-white contrast
Does not easily lend itself to color
Limited to a couple hundred editions due to deteriorating relief edges
• Flourished in Japan
17th to 19th centuries
Multiple blocks to achieve subtle and highly integrated color effects Preferred method of middle-class
Subject matter range from famous theater actors, landscapes, erotic images Hiroshige’s Light Rain at Shono
Color woodcuts
Multiple woodblocks registered, or aligned, carefully

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Roughness
Image almost indecipherable
Texture of matrix obvious
Kirchner’s approach direct and expressive
A revolt against polished effects sought by
other European printmakers of the time
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Port Scene. 1908.
Woodcut. 19-3/8” × 15-7/8”.

5. 1
• Wood Engraving
Traditionally used for book illustration Very dense wood set on end
Durable, large editions possible Use of metal tools
William Blake Early pioneer
Illustrated Thornton’s Pastorals of Virgil in 1821
Boy Returning Joyfully, with Plough and Oxen
High detail possible from engraving tools
William Blake. Boy Returning Joyfully, with Plough and Oxen. 1821.
Wood engraving, 1-1/2” × 3-1/16”.

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Linocut
Linoleum cut
Gouging of synthetic linoleum surface in
areas not intended to take ink Functions
as soft matrix
No grain and can be cut with equal ease
in any direction
Elizabeth Catlett, I Have Special
Reservations ...
Even, white gouges
Socially conscious printmaking Dignified
images of African Americans
Elizabeth Catlett. I Have Special
Reservations… . 1946.
Linocut. 10-1/2” × 9”

7. 1
Intaglio
•
Areas below the surface hold the ink.
From Italian word intagliare, “to cut
into”
Process
• Ink daubed on surface
Surface wiped clean except in grooves
Damp paper passes beneath press
roller
• Characteristic plate marks of roller

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Engraving
•
Artist uses a burin, or engraving tool,
on metal plate
• Takes strength and control
Scraper smooths down rough edges
of the groove Lines not drawn freely
due to pressure
•
Seen in United States currency
Albrecht Dürer’s complex prints
Albrecht Dürer. The Knight, Death, and
the Devil. 1513.
Engraving. Plate 9-5/8” × 7-1/2”.

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Drypoint
•
Similar to line engraving
Tool with steel or diamond tip
Soft copper or zinc plate
Displaced metal leaves burr, a rough edge
• Creates blurred line
Small editions and rarely done
Mostly used to fill in details of etchings

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Etching
Preparation of a metal plate (copper or
zinc) with wax or varnish Artist draws
through surface to expose metal
Plate immersed in nitric acid that makes a
groove according to:
Strength of the acid
Amount of time plate is in the acid bath
Lines generally more relaxed, irregular
than engraved lines
Rembrandt, Christ Preaching
Compared to Dürer's precise lines
Skillful use of light and shadow provided
by this medium
Rembrandt van Rijn. Christ Preaching.
c.1652.
Etching, engraving, and drypoint. Plate 6-
1/16" × 8-1/8".

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Aquatint
Technique of sprinkling acid-resistant
powder over areas that need gray tone
Varying values
Combined with other techniques in Mary
Cassatt’s The Letter
Today, electroetching seeks to avoid
endangering artist's health from acids.
Mary Cassatt. The Letter. 1891.
Drypoint and aquatint, printed in color
from three plates;
fourth state of four.

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Lithography
Surface or planographic printing process
Faster and more flexible method
Process
Artist draws image on Bavarian limestone or plate without cutting Using litho crayons/pencils or tusche liquid
Completed image treated with gum arabic
Surface dampened with water and inked
Because surface remains intact, lithographic stones or plates can be reused. Provided ease of printing in the early 1800s

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One of the first lithographic artists
Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1834
Captures event of militia killing many innocent tenants of an apartment Published the day after the event
Honoré Daumier. Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1834. 1834.
Lithograph.

14. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Printing from
Life Hundreds of innovative works
Bright colors and flattened compositions
Pioneered new style of lithographic
poster
Large format and innovative
compositions
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Aristide
Bruant. 1893.
Lithograph.

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Screenprinting
Also known as silkscreen or serigraphy
From traditional use of silk as material
Adheres stencil to a screen
Rubber-edged blade or squeegee pushes ink through the fabric in open areas of the stencil
Good for producing uniform color
No reversal of the image as in other printmaking processes
Lends itself to poster production
Many social movements use silkscreen to help spread the word

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Jesús Barraza, We Are Fighting!
• Portrait of activist Milañ Loeak and a
quote from one of her essays Excellent
example of silkscreen
Jesús Barraza, We Are Fighting!
Screenprint. 9” × 12”.

17. 1
Screenprinting
Photo screen
Latest development using light-sensitive
gelatin to screen fabric Andy Warhol,
Gangster Funeral
Variations caused by varying the amount of
ink that the squeegee pushed through the
screen
Andy Warhol. Gangster Funeral. 1963.

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3-D printing
Artist creates a design using
modeling software
Not a print because a 3-D print is
not an impression But it is a limited
edition made by an artist
Brenna Murphy. Rainbow Array 1.
2015.
3-D printed sandstone, pigment. 2”
× 2” × 1”.