Print Techniques

Why is it called fine art printmaking, when the printmaker can print thousands?  When an industrial printer prints newspapers or posters the process is more of  an industrial process and much of the artisan skill has been replaced with a mechanical process ....

When fine art printmakers produce a print they are involved in the entire process from conception of the image, creating the plate(s) and creating the edition.  Such a process even taking the least arduous route is very labour intensive.  The more complex the medium the more effort and time is required...

Different types of print

• Monoprint - usually this image is produced directly on the plate, it is by its nature a quickly executed print but as its name implies is a single print only, any extra 'copies' need to be re-created from scratch.  One advantage is that all the colours can be applied at the same time.
• Intaglio - this technique has a plate that is etched with the image, ink is then aplied to the plate (forcing it into every crevice).  Now all the surface ink is removed (a laborious process in itself) and the resulting impression is that which is ectched or engraved into the plate.
• Silkscreen - creating the screen initially is a laborious process but once achieved the prnting process is swift.  The image is applied to the screen using perhaps photo sensitive coatings or simple stencils.  When ready the ink is forced through the parts of the screen that hv no resist.
• Relief - this proces is that which is used with woodcut or linocut.  The part you don't want to print is cut away leaving the image to be printed proud.  Although it is possible to use multiple plates with relief printing it is common to print the first colour and then by an iteritive process, keep cutting away and printing successive colours.  This i known  as reduction, a disadvantage of this method is that once cut away there is no going back.

The method of creating the image to print is open to the artist and can involve combining different processes to acheive the final result, for example, a drawing or watercolour can be transferred to a plate by traditional etching or photo-etching techniques. the resulting plate may be the entire image or a part that is applied first or overprinted on another impression. There are so many variations and combinations of techniques available to the artist, couple that with the many paper types or indeed any material capable of holding a print and it is easy to see there are limitless possibilities.