Printmaking techniques can be divided into four basic categories: relief, intaglio, planographic, and stencil. Relief printing involves a raised surface and includes woodcut and linoleum cut. Intaglio is the opposite, using a recessed surface created by cutting into metal plates with tools. Planographic printing involves a flat surface and includes lithography. Stencil printing uses a screen with a cut design to push ink onto paper. Contemporary artists combine traditional and digital techniques in new ways.

1. PRINTMAKING

3. Range from simple to complex
Divided into 4 basic categories:
Relief
Intaglio
Planographic (lithography)
Stencil (screenprinting)
Contemporary artists are using the old methods in
new ways, sometimes combining them with digital
techniques
TYPES OF PRINTMAKING:

4. 1. RELIEF PRINTING
This is printing from a raised surface. A simple example of relief printing is a
rubber stamp presssed into stamp pad and pressed onto a piece of paper.
The relief process, is where the printmaker cuts away all parts of the printing
surface not meant to carry ink, leaving the design to be printed “in relief” at the
level of the original surface. That surface is then inked and the ink is transferred to
paper with pressure.
Woodcut (woodblock)
Wood engraving
Linoleum cut (linocut) and various types of relief processes.
Examples of printmaking in the everyday world include fingerprints, rubber stamps,
and marks made by wet tires.
When using other colors than black and white, blocks must be registered (lined up)
so that colors will be exactly positioned in the final print.

5. ■ Block printing from woodcuts was first employed to spread Buddhism in China.
■ The Diamond Sutra is an example of this technique that can still be observed
today.
■ Woodblock printings that flourished in Japan during the nineteenth century were
made through a complex process that used many blocks to achieve color effects.
Where block printing in China was used to promote religious beliefs, printings in
Japan depicted night life scenes, celebrities, landscapes, and erotic pictures.
The Diamond Sutra

6. ■ Hokusai, a Japanese artist, is known for his color woodcut prints.
■ Although very different in appearance, Hokusai s “The Wave” and Nolde s “prophet”ʼ ʼ
were made using the same general technique.

7. Relief Printing Plates and Tools:

8. 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 or in some cases a piece
of plexiglass.
Opposite of relief
Areas below the surface hold the ink
Intaglio – from the Italian intagliare “to cut into”
Image to be printed is cut or scratched into a metal surface by steel or diamond-tip
tools, or etched into the surface by acid
First, printmaker daubs the plate with viscous printer’s ink
Then, wipe the surface clean, leaving ink only in the etched or grooved portions
Next, damp paper is placed on the inked plate
Which then, passes beneath the press roller
A print is made when the dampened paper picks up the ink in the grooves
The pressure of the roller creates a characteristic plate mark around the edges of the
print

9. ■ Traditionally, intaglio printing was done from polished copper plates
■ Now used:
– Zinc
– Steel
– Aluminum
– Plastic
■ Two Principal Intaglio processes
– Engraving
– Etching
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.

10. Engraving
■ An intaglio printmaking process in which grooves are cut into a metal or wood
surface with a sharp cutting tool called a burin or graver. Also the resulting print.

11. Engraving Process
■ Lines are made by pushing the burin through the metal to carve a groove.
■ Thousand of fine lines define the shapes, masses, spaces values.
■ Textures of the depicted objects.

12. Etching
The artist draws with a needle on to a copper, zinc or steel plate that has been
covered with an acid resistant wax. When the plate is immersed in acid, the bare metal,
exposed by the lines of the drawing, is eroded. The depth of the `etch’ is controlled
by the amount of time the acid is allowed to `bite’ the metal. The longer in acid, the
deeper the line and the darker it will print.
In order to obtain a print, a viscous greasy ink is pushed into the etched grooves, then the
surface is wiped clean with muslin, leaving only the etched areas retaining ink. The actual
impression is made with a copper plate press which is similar to an old washing mangle
with a large plank or `bed’ between the rollers. The plate is placed on the bed, covered
with dampened paper and backed with three or four felt blankets.

13. These are then passed through the press under high pressure, the malleable paper is forced
into the cuts and ridges in the plate and thus picks up the ink. When the paper is finally
peeled off, it reveals a faithful mirror image of the etched drawing. This inking procedure is
then repeated for each print.

14. The complex richness of engraved lines in
Albrecht Durer’s engraving
THE KNIGHT, DEATH AND THE DEVIL.

15. Types of Engraving
Claw Engraving
Wood Engraving
Copper Engraving

16. 3. PLANOGRAPHY /
Lithography
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.
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.
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.

17. Planography -
Lithography Printing

19. 4. STENCIL- Serigraphy
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.
(Seri means silk)
Serigraphy, sometimes called silk screening, is a type of stencil printing.
A stencil is fastened to a sheet of silk which is tightly stretched across a woode
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.
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.
Modern screenprinting is a refinement of the ancient and simple technique of stencil
printing

20. Also known as silkscreen or serigraphy (seri is Latin for silk)
Silk was the traditional material used for the screen
Stencil Technique:
Stencil is attached to a screen made of silk fabric stretched across a frame
A squeegee is used to push ink through the fabric in the open areas of the stencil to
make an image of the stencil on the material being printed
Synthetic fabric is used today
■ Silkscreen printing was used a lot for poster production and social movements.
- The photographic stencil (or photo screen) is the latest development in screenprinting.
This is achieved by attaching light-sensitive gelatin to the screen fabric.

22. CURRENT DIRECTIONS
■ 1: New types of printing material
■ 2: Digital technology
■ Contemporary methods and technological methods are often mixed
■ Photomechanical methods of reproduction have taken handwork out of the process

23. Digital Technology
■ “Digital technology has altered printmaking at a basic level by eliminating the
tangible plate.”
■ This has led to infinitely reproducible prints
■ “Novel means of controlling the size of an edition”
■ Gilbert and George-Downloading time constraint

24. 3 D Print