Printmaking Techniques

Printmaking tools

INTAGLIO, an Italian word, is applied to a method in which hollows or groves are made in the plate; these are filled with ink, this is removed from the surface of the plate; ink inthe grooves is then transferred to the damped paper under high pressure, for example,

  • ETCHING (probably derived from the dutch word for "eating") indentations are made in the plate by acid; the parts not to be printed being protected from the action of the acid by a wax or resin resist, called a "ground".
     
  • ENGRAVING (in metal): lines, etc... removed from the plate by the use of a burin (engraving tol resembling a solid chisel) and printed as above.
     
  • AQUATINT (so named probably because the result resembles a water colour) in this method the artist thinks in areas of tone, as one would with water colour, the plate being textured to varying degrees of roughness according to th etime in the acid. The resist is a resin dust, annealed to the plate by heat and "stopped" instages as in any etching process. The deeper the "bite" the darker the impression.
     
  • MEZZOTINT (also Italian): in which the surface of the plate is roughened mechanically (so as to print solid colour all over) and then burnisged back towards white through an infinite graduation of half-tones, as is suggested by the name mezzotint.


RELEIF is the reverse of intaglio printing; the proportions of the plate or block that are removed do not print - the ink being transferred from the raised parts to the paper pressed on it, examples are,

  • WOODCUT, LINOCUT (cut with gouges). Wood is usually cut "on the plank" in this form, that is to say, on the along-grain surface, as distinct from:
     
  • WOOD EGRAVING executed on the grain-end of the wood with burins. Metal engraving may also be designed so as to print in releif.


PLANOGRAPHIC - the surface is flat but treated differently in parts, for example:

  • LITHOGRAPHY the area of the plate (originally stone) to be printed is so treated as to be recptive to oil, the rest so as to retain water. Oil ink adheres to the parts to be printed, the rst being damp.
     
  • SILK SCREEN (Serigraphy) is a form of stencil. The ink is passed through a porous fabric (originally silk, today nylon or a metal screen), parts of which have been blocked to prevent it reaching the paper in those areas.