For examples of specific printmaking techniques, follow the links below, or go directly to our Featured Prints section, which is to designed give you further insight into the printmaking process with images and information about the artists and Pace Prints printmakers at work.
Relief
Relief printing is a generic term used to describe methods in which the raised areas of the printing element are inked and printed. The most common relief printing techniques are woodcut and linocut.
Robert Ryman has developed unique relief-printing techniques to suit the needs of his subtle, minimalist aesthetic. See our Featured Print page about the making of his print First Conversion, 2003, a relief print printed from linoleum directly onto aluminum litho plates.
Woodcut
Woodcut is one of the oldest and simplest forms of printmaking. Various implements (both hand tools and power tools) can be used to cut the image into a block of wood. Paper is placed over the inked block and rubbed by hand or passed through a press to transfer the ink from block to paper to create the image.
Woodcut prints and illustrations were first popularized in China in the 9th century and spread to Europe in the 14th century where they became a popular medium for the mass distribution of religious and instructive imagery. The woodcut was developed to an exceptional level of artistic achievement in Japan during the 17th-18th century, the ukiyo-e period.
See our featured prints section for information about the making of Helen Frankenthaler's Geisha, 2003, a print made using traditional ukiyo-e wood block printing techniques.
Linocut
The lino block consists of a thin layer of linoleum mounted on wood. This material is easily carved using simple knives and gouges. The image is then transferred to paper as with a woodcut.
James Siena has made many remarkable linocut prints in the Pace Prints workshop. See our featured prints section for information about the making of James Siena's Lattice, 2003, a reduction linoleum cut print.
Intaglio
A general category of printing techniques characterized by the incision of lines or images into a surface of a plate, which is usually metal. The whole plate is inked and then wiped to remove the ink from the plate's surface, leaving ink only in the incised areas. The paper is dampened so that, under pressure, it will be squeezed into the inked recesses of the plate. Thin films of ink are sometimes left on the surface of the plate to achieve tonal effects.
Engraving
For this technique, a metal plate is incised with a tool called a burin. Great skill is required to manipulate the burin as it is pushed at different angles and degrees of pressure to produce a variety of marks and lines. Engraving techniques were used by the Greeks, Romans and Etruscans for decorating objects but were not used for printmaking until the mid 15th century in Germany. Engraved images are comprised of a multitude of crisp, fine lines. Shading is traditionally rendered by cross-hatching or similar marks.
Drypoint
As with engraving, this is a process in which marks are made on a plate using a sharp, pointed instrument. Unlike engraving, in which small amounts of metal are completely removed as the lines are incised. Drypoint is characterized by the curl of displaced metal, called the burr, which forms as the line is cut. When inked, the burr creates a distinctive velvety appearance. This technique is usually done on soft copper plates. As the edition is printed, the burr becomes flattened and less distinct. Therefore it is generally preferable to have a print with a low impression number from a drypoint edition.
Mezzotint
This is very beautiful but time-consuming technique which was most popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. In creating a mezzotint, first the entire metal plate is roughened by marking fine lines into the plate in all directions with a rocker, making the surface receptive to ink. (If printed at this stage, the entire paper would be black). Tones are created by burnishing or scraping into the plate, working from black back to middle values and highlights.
Etching
An intaglio process introduced in the early 1500's that uses acid to make marks in a metal plate. The plate is covered with an acid-resistant coating called a ground. The image is drawn using a sharp needle to scrape through the ground, exposing the plate. The plate is then immersed in an acid bath in which marks are made as exposed areas are eaten away. The characteristics of the marks produced depend on the tool used to draw the image, the type of ground used to coat the surface of the plate (hard or soft ground), and the length of time the plate is left in the acid bath.
Mary Heilmann's Hip Hop, 2002, a copperplate etching made using a technique called sugar lift, is featured in our Featured Prints section.
Aquatint
An etching method introduced in the mid-17th century to create a more subtle tonal range than could be achieved with straight etching technique. Powdered resin is made to adhere to a metal plate; the metal that remains exposed around the tiny drops of resin is bitten in the acid bath, creating a pitted, grainy surface. These textured areas hold a thin layer of ink which prints as an area of tone. The longer the plate is left in the acid, the deeper the texture will be bitten and the darker it will print. A plate may be bitten several times for a range of tonal areas. An acid-resistant "stop-out" can be painted onto the plate to protect certain areas from being bitten in subsequent acid baths.
Georgia Marsh creates exquisite, delicate etchings, some of which make use of the aquatint technique. See our featured prints section for information about the making of Georgia Marsh's Cold Moon I & II, 2003, a pair of softground and aquatint etchings.
Spitbite Aquatint
An Intaglio method of painting strong acid directly onto the aquatint ground of an etching plate. Depending on the amount of time the acid is left on the plate, light to dark tones can be achieved. To control the acid application, saliva, ethylene glycol, or Kodak Photoflo solution can be used. Traditionally a clean brush was coated with saliva, dipped into nitric acid and brushed onto the ground, hence the term "spitbite".
Photogravure
A photographic technique used in combination with etching or aquatint. The metal plate is heated and dusted with a fine rosin or aquatint ground. In a darkroom, the image is exposed from a positive transparency (usually a glass plate made from the original negative) onto a sensitized gravure carbon tissue or film. This image, in turn, is transferred to the metal plate. The plate is bathed in warm water, causing the unexposed emulsion on the carbon print to be washed away, leaving the image in relief. Ferric chloride is then applied to the plate to eat away the copper in proportion to the highlights and shadows of the gelatin relief. The finished plate is printed by hand by usual intaglio methods. This process has great fidelity to the tonal range of the original photograph.
Lithography
A process invented in the late 18th century, based on the antipathy of grease and water. The image is drawn on a smooth stone or plate using pencils, crayons, tusche, grease, lacquer, or synthetic materials, or sometimes by means of a photochemical or transfer process. After the image is drawn, the stone or plate is dampened and ink is applied with a roller. The greasy image repels the water and holds the oily ink while the rest of the stone's surface does the opposite. The entire surface is treated with a solution of gum arabic and nitric acid before inking in order to enhance this effect. Printing is accomplished in a press similar to that used in intaglio processes.
Stencil
A process of printing through an opening of material or cutout design.
Screenprint (Serigraph, Silkscreen)
A stencil is adhered to a material (now synthetic nylon is used instead of silk) stretched tightly over a frame. The image areas are open fabric through which ink or paint is forced with a squeegee. Screenprints can be made onto almost any material.
See our featured prints section for information about the making of Chuck Close's Lyle, 2003, a large-scale, 149-color silkscreen.
Monoprint/Monotype
The key characteristic of a monoprint or monotype is that no two prints are identical, though many of the same elements may be present. All or part of a monoprint is created from printed elements whereas a monotype image is painted directly onto a smooth plate and then transferred to paper in a press. These prints are often hand-colored after they are printed.
Pochoir
A direct method for hand coloring through a stencil. The stencil itself is usually knife-cut from thin-coated paper, paperboard, plastic, or metal. A stencil and stencil-brush may be used to make multicolor prints or for tinting black and white prints.
Digital Prints
Iris prints are created by printing computer-generated images on a large scale ink jet printer manufactured by IRIS. The ink is dispersed by a sophisticated print head in a fine mist of minute droplets in order to deliver a continuous tone image. Iris prints can be printed using highly saturated, archival, water-based inks on a wide range of materials, from traditional fine art papers to fabric and wood veneers.
Epson print images are also computer generated and realized. Epson printers use pigment-based archival inks rather than water-based inks. In addition to the materials that can be printed on with Iris printers, the Epson printers can accommodate rigid materials such as copper plates or cardboard.
To learn more about digital fine art printmaking, see our Featured Print page about Carl Fudge's Everyone has a Theory as to Why I, 2002, an Iris print created using computer technologies to manipulate a 17th century Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock image.
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