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Identify and differentiate various forms and characteristics of art- work in relation to specific media and processes.

Explain processes involved in creating artwork

Identify important artists and architects throughout history and explain the underlying meaning in the artwork of these artists.

ObjectivesIntroduction

any artists create works of art that are considered to be originals

even though there may be several that are nearly identical in

existence. The areas of printmaking and photography are the most

common media of art in which the production of multiple images is

found. Photographers and printmakers often create what are called

editions of prints, which are all hand signed, dated, and numbered

prints by an artist. An art print is very different than a color reproduction

such as a picture out of a magazine or a copy from a copy machine. It

is important not to confuse the two because the former is considered

an original work of art while the latter is merely a copy. The art prints

that are being referred to were created as a way for many people to

be able to afford original works of art. While an original oil painting

may cost several thousand dollars, prints by the same artist typically

may only cost a few hundred dollars. Photography has played a

similar role throughout history. Prior to the invention of photography

only the wealthy could afford to have an artist paint their portraits.

Photography provided a more affordable way for people to have their

likenesses recorded than portrait painting did. Throughout their history,

Media Explorations in Printmaking

Art Appreciation

printmaking and photography have remained relatively affordable art forms which people can enjoy having as original works of art to display in their homes. and photography have remained relatively affordable art forms which people can enjoy having as original works of art to display in their homes.

Understanding Processes: Printmaking Methods What is a print?

There are four basic methods of printmaking (in addition to monoprint): relief, intaglio, lithography, and screenprint. These methods are used to create effects similar to drawing and painting in a way that can be reproduced many times. Prints are created on something known as a plate. A plate is the surface that the idea is created upon for reproduction. Once the design is completed, the artist rolls the plate through a printmaking press. This applies pressure to the plate and transfers the image from the plate to the artist’s paper, which is lying on top of the plate. Besides a plate and paper, some other materials that a printmaker needs are ink, brayers, soaking trays, rags, solvents, and the necessary tools for each specific method. The numerous styles that can be created by each different printmaking method are quite varied, and often an artist will choose a particular printmaking method based on an intended idea or desired effect that they wish to achieve.

The first media that will be explored is relief printmaking. The name relief derives from the way that the printing surface is raised above its background. The background, or the area that is carved away, does not print. The ink is applied only to the raised surface. This inked area is what transfers to the printmaking paper. Some common types of relief printmaking are woodcut, linocut, and wood engraving. Relief printmaking was the first form of printmaking that was invented. Relief prints began being printed on fabric

in China in the 8th century A.D. even though earlier forms of relief such as cylinder seals and branding stamps for animals and criminals predate the Chinese invention. One of the first known images using the woodcut technique is the 17 foot long Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist work that combines text with pictures. This relief work dates to 868 A.D., and was discovered in a walled up cave by Sir Aurel Stein in 1907. Relief printmaking was also used extensively to depict Christian themes in Europe in the fifteenth century. Woodcuts were often used to depict religious devotional images or icons that could be used during prayer. Icons using the woodcut technique

Diamond Sutra

Media Explorations in Printmaking

were much more affordable for common people than the more expensive hand painted icons. Another use of the woodcut technique was for illuminated manuscripts that depicted Biblical text alongside illustrations. The most famous of the printmakers using the woodcut technique in this way was Albrecht Durer, who illustrated fifteen revelations of St. John the evangelist in the Apocalypse series.

The forms of relief printmaking all are based on the principle that the higher areas print while the areas that have been carved away do not. A very basic form of relief printing is a rubber stamp that can be used with a pad of ink. One of the most common forms of relief printmaking used by artists is the woodcut technique. This technique involves using woodcut knives and a variety of steel tipped chisels of varying sizes and shapes to carve the desired image on a block of wood. A variety of types of wood can be used depending on the softness or hardness desired by the artist. Softer woods tend to show more of the natural wood grain while harder woods typically allow the artist to carve more freely across the grain to create detailed areas. The type of wood that is chosen should depend on the final effect that the artist desires.

With the woodcut technique there are two common approaches to creating multiple colors. One approach known as the reduction technique, involves using the same block of wood for every color. Here each successive color is preserved on the paper when the artist carves away the areas on the plate that they desire to remain a certain color. Each time the block is inked, the successive color will cover all previous colors unless the artist has selectively carved out certain areas to preserve the previous color. The second method of woodcut involves using multiple blocks of wood all of which are the same size. One color is typically used for each block and they are registered so that they fit onto the key block. This is the method invented by Japanese woodblock printmakers in the mid 1800’s and that influenced the

Impressionist artists working in Europe in the late 19 th century. Two of the great masters of this Japanese technique known as Ukiyo-e, were Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige.

A second form of relief printmaking is known as the wood engraving. This method was used extensively in the 1800’s for the illustration of newspapers, books, magazines

The Revelation of St. John: 4. The Four Rid- ers of the Apocalypse

Albrecht Durer

Red Fuji Hokusai

Art Appreciation

and catalogues. Unlike the woodcut, which uses the plank side of the wood (the side of the wood with the grain running lengthwise,) the wood engraving uses the end grain of the wood. By creating the image on the end grain, the printmaker is able to achieve extremely delicate and detailed lines in any

direction. This made wood engraving the ideal method for transferring photographs to plates. The photograph was basically a guide for the engraver who carved the plate. A variety of line types can be created with the wood engraving tools known as round gravers, flat gravers, angle tint tools, and elliptical tint tools. A hard wood is typically used and the wood engraver is freed from the constraints that the wood grain might dictate with the woodcut process. Nonetheless, the wood engraving remains a relief process meaning that the ink is held in the areas of the wood that are raised. Ink is spread out on a piece of glass, and a tool known as a

brayer is then rolled across the ink. Once there is an even coating of ink on the brayer, the ink is rolled across the surface of the wood. Next, the paper is placed on top and the back of the paper is rubbed with a spoon, burnisher, or rolled through an etching press under printmaking blankets. These methods are also used in the woodcut technique as well as in other relief techniques.

Linocut or linoleum cut is another relief technique which involves the use of similar gouges and knives as those that are used in the woodcut process. Since the surface being carved is linoleum, the printmaker does not need to apply as much pressure and force when carving away areas of this softer material. This method is often used in secondary schools and sometimes has a reputation of being an amateur method of relief carving. Pablo Picasso proved this idea false in 1939 when he abandoned the traditional relief material of

wood for linoleum, a more modern material. Picasso created many linocuts and broke down the stereotype that linoleum was an inferior material to wood for artists working in the relief technique.

The second form of printmaking that will be discussed is intaglio printmaking. The word intaglio is an Italian word meaning to engrave or cut into. Intaglio printmaking involves the use of a metal plate for the execution of the design. The intaglio process works in the opposite way as the relief process. Intaglio plates hold ink in the areas that are lower than the surface of the plate. The way that a design is created in the surface of a plate can be categorized

Portrait de jeune fille, d’après Cranach le jeune.

PicassoThe Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Francisco Goya

Media Explorations in Printmaking

into either the engraving process, which involves line, or an etching process, which uses an acidic solution. Once the design is completed on the metal plate, the artist applies ink to the entire plate and the nonprinting surface is wiped clean with special cloth. In order for the design to be transferred to paper, the artist must dampen the printmaking paper, in order to soften it, in trays of water. The excess water is blotted out on towels or blotter paper. Then the damp paper is placed over the inked image and the plate is rolled through the printmaking press. Pressure forces the paper into the depressed areas of the plate thus transferring the image to the paper.

Some techniques used in the intaglio process are drypoint and engraving. The drypoint technique uses a tool called a drypoint needle, which produces a soft and velvety line. When the drypoint needle is scratched across the surface of the metal plate, a metal burr is raised that causes the line to appear soft or blurry. Unlike the drypoint needle, the burin, the tool used in engraving, creates very smooth crisp lines with a great degree of precision. An example of the engraving technique can be found on any good banknote. Both the engraving and drypoint technique involve creating incised lines into a metal plate. These lines will later hold ink when the plate is ready to be printed.

Very often printmakers combine engraving techniques with etching processes such as mezzotint, aquatint, or etching. These techniques involve placing the plate in an acidic bath such as nitric acid in order for the desired effect to be etched into the metal plate. The mezzotint technique produces rich velvety blacks and glowing highlights with a great degree of subtlety. To create a mezzotint, the printmaker must first darken the entire plate by roughening the entire surface with a tool called a mezzotint rocker. At this stage the plate would print completely black. The next step is to bring out the highlights and lighter values of the design by using a burnishing tool or a scraper to reduce the very dark values that were created with the mezzotint rocker. The mezzotint process is the most time consuming of all the intaglio processes. As a result, the aquatint process is often used in place of the mezzotint process today. With the aquatint technique, subtle tonal gradations can also be achieved through the use of aquatint materials such as a rosin powder. With the rosin powder technique, the artist sprinkles this fine powder onto specific areas of the metal plate from a dust bag made of nylon or silk. The particles should be evenly spaced so that the plate is not entirely covered and so that there is equal spacing of particle and plate surface. Next the plate is heated so that the particles become adhered to the plate. Then the plate is placed in an acidic solution that bites away at the plate in the areas that surround each tiny rosin particle. The longer the plate stays in the acid the deeper the etch, which will result in a darker result when the plate is inked and printed. In the end, when ink is applied to the plate, a subtle tonal gradation is achieved.

Sunshine V, mezzotint Peter Ilsted

Art Appreciation

The final intaglio process is etching, which involves the use of line, unlike the mezzotint and aquatint processes which focus primarily on tone. The etching process involves using a substance known as a ground. This material is painted over the plate and is used to resist the biting action of the acid bath. The artist uses an etching needle or another intaglio drawing tool to create lines that penetrate through the ground but not into the surface of the plate. Once the design is finished, the plate is placed in the acid bath solution and the lines are created by the action of the acid eating away the surface of the plate. The width, darkness and depth of the lines are dependent upon how long the plate stays in the acid and the strength of the acid solution. Later the ground is removed and the areas that were covered remain unaffected by the acid. Typically the lines created through the etching process are more subtle than the lines of an engraving due to the secondary process of creating lines with the acid solution.

The third form of printmaking is lithography, which literally means ‘stone writing’ in Greek. Lithography works on the principle that oil and water do not mix. Lithography is a planographic method meaning that it uses a flat surface, unlike relief and intaglio. The traditional surface for lithography is Bavarian limestone, but many printmakers today use metal plates. The lithography process was accidentally invented in the 1790’s by a young actor and playwright, Alois Senefelder while searching for an inexpensive way to publish his plays on a copper plate. While practicing his ideas on stone taken from the streets of Munich before using his expensive copper plates, Senefelder discovered a way to etch and ink these inexpensive stones. He continued experimenting with the new printing process and later discovered the basics of today’s lithography.

Lithography involves using a greasy agent such as a grease crayon, also known as a litho crayon, to create a drawing directly on stone. Once the drawing is completed, the stone is then treated with a nitric acid, water, and gum arabic solution. This solution, referred to as the etch, causes two chemical reactions to occur. One takes place between the etch and the greasy drawing material while the other reaction is between the stone and the etch. Even though acid is used, the surface of the stone is not etched it is merely divided into two distinct areas: the image area which holds ink and the background area which holds water. Then the original drawing, which was created with the litho crayon or other greasy agent, is removed or washed out. A slight ghost like image will remain which later will hold ink. When the entire stone is dampened with water, however, and ink is rolled across the stone with a brayer, the ink only adheres to the areas where the drawing was and not the areas that have absorbed water. The basic principle is that oil and water do not mix, so as long as the non-image (background) areas have absorbed water, the ink will only adhere to areas that were originally drawn with the greasy material.

The Soldier and his Wife. Etching by Daniel Hopfer, who is believed to have been the first to

apply the technique to printmaking

Lithograph of Senefelder from Specimens of Polyautography.

Media Explorations in Printmaking

When looking at a lithograph, one will observe that lithographs closely resemble charcoal drawings. This media is ideal for artists who enjoy working with charcoal but would like to create a drawing that can be reproduced many times. Using the litho crayon to draw the image on the stone is a very direct method of working. Another substance that can be used is known as tusche. This is also a grease based drawing material that creates effects similar to ink wash. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish lithographs from charcoal drawings, but careful examination of the placement of the signature, edition number, and date will clearly reveal the type of artwork that one is viewing.

The final form of printmaking, which was the most recently invented, is screen print or serigraphy. Serigraphy literally means silk writing from the Latin seri for ‘silk’ and the Greek graphos for ‘to write’. Common examples of silk screened images include tee shirts with lettering or images. Also silk screen is a very fast printmaking technique and is relatively inexpensive. The surface that the design or image is created on is traditionally stretched silk (tightly stretched across a wooden or metal frame), but nylon and polyester are commonly used today.

Serigraphy involves the creation of a stencil either by painting a substance such as glue onto the screen or by adhering a special film to the screen that prevents ink from passing through. If the glue substance or blockout is used to create the image, the glue is painted onto the screen according to the idea of the artist. Then another substance such as a thin coat of shellac is applied over the entire surface of the screen. After the shellac dries, the glue from the previous step is washed out leaving areas that are not covered with shellac. These areas where the glue had previously adhered will be the areas that ink will eventually pass through. The next step after washing out (removing) the glue, is to place the paper under the printmaking screen on a vacuum table. The table creates a suction that pulls the paper down tightly onto the table. This prevents the paper from shifting during the printing process. If a vacuum table is not available the paper can be taped or spray mounted to prevent shifting. The printmaker must then “flood” ink across the surface of the entire printmaking screen with a squeegee. The squeegee must be large enough to reach across the entire image in one pass. After the ink has been applied to the entire

Smiling Spider by Odilon Redon

Screenprinting Photo comes from obin.org foto archive.

Art Appreciation

screen, the screen is placed above the paper with only a tiny margin of space between the screen and the paper. During the final step, the printmaker passes a squeegee from one side to another across the screen in the actual printing “stroke”. The silk is pushed directly onto the paper as ink is adhered to the paper in a quick rapid stroke. Finally the paper is allowed to dry until the next color will be printed.

Besides using the glue or blockout method, a stencil or photographic image can also be used in the serigraphy process. A stencil can be made out of a material such as lacquer stencil film, layout paper, or water soluble film. First, the idea that the artist has in mind is drawn on a piece of paper. Next the artist places the stencil material (film, tracing paper, etc…) over the drawing. Using a special stencil cutting knife, the artist can cut away the image areas leaving only background areas on the stencil. The stencil is then placed on the screen and it becomes adhered to the screen after the first pass of the squeegee. When the squeegee is passed across the screen during printing, the ink passes through the areas that were cut out with the stencil knife onto the printmaking paper. When printing is completed, the paper is allowed to dry and the stencil can be easily peeled off of the screen. Multiple colors can be added to build up the image using the any of the serigraphy methods mentioned.

One related form of printmaking is monotype, which was invented in the 17 thcentury. Monotype printing is not one of the four basic forms of printmaking because unlike the other four forms in which many prints can be made off of the plates, only one or two prints can be made off of a monotype plate. Many materials, such as cardboard, metal, or wood, can be used as the plate for a monotype. The drawing can be created in either oil based or water based materials. Some oil based materials include oil sticks and oil paints while some water based materials that can be used are watercolors, markers, or tempera paints. Whichever type of material is chosen, oil or water based, the design is created on the plate. The paper is dampened in a soaking tray and the excess water is blotted off. Then the paper is placed over the plate and passed through a press. The image transfers onto the dampened paper and up to one more print may be created off of this plate. The second image is often referred to as the ghost image because it is very light in value in comparison to the initial image.

While it may seem that a monotype is simply a flattened painting, there are many avenues that can be explored with monotype. Sometimes an artist

Monotype by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione,

probably a second impres- sion

Media Explorations in Printmaking

will use a monotype as a base for a drawing that they will continue in pastel, colored pencil, or another drawing media. Other times an artist may allow the first run of the monotype to dry and later continue adding layers to this print with successive runs through the press with different design elements being added each time. Still other times, monotype can be combined with one or more of the four basic printmaking methods so that an artist can achieve the desired effect. Many artists enjoy experimenting with the quick drawing and painting-like qualities of the monotype technique.

Before concluding the technical aspects of printmaking, it is important to note a few things. First, all printmaking methods have one thing in common, and that is that the image is always printed in reverse from what is on the plate. This is an important consideration for printmakers, especially if words are to be included. Another aspect of printmaking involves the hand signed editioning in graphite which includes the artist’s signature and date, the title, and the edition number. These elements are found just below the plate mark at the bottom of the print. Since prints were invented as an affordable means for people to purchase original works of art, it is important to know that the numbers closest to one in the edition are more valuable. Also, if the letters AP, instead of a number such as 1/100, appear below the plate mark, then these so called artist’s proofs, are even more valuable. This is because they were unique from the rest of the edition and were thus not included with it even though they may be similar. Many well known printmakers’ works can be purchased at galleries which deal in antique and contemporary prints. If one is careful, these can be valuable investments as well as works to enjoy for a lifetime.

Printmakers use various forms of printmaking to reproduce images many times. After they have printed their desired number of prints, they edition the series. The edition, as it is called, consists of each print being hand signed, numbered, and dated in pencil by the artist below the plate mark on the paper. Printmakers have the advantage of being able to have an exhibition of the same images at multiple locations simultaneously. While prints typically do not sell for as high a price as original paintings, each one is considered an original work of art and will often increase in value over time. Printmakers must be concerned with the hazards of the printmaking processes that they use. Many of these processes involve using acids and solutions that should only be used in well ventilated areas. Therefore it is important that printmakers use caution when handling certain substances, as well as breathing the fumes from others, and the environmental regulations concerning the safe disposal of these materials. Many new materials are being developed for the use in printmaking today as substitutes to the more caustic solutions. This is important because it creates a healthier environment for printmakers.

One of the first printmakers to become widely known was Albrecht Durer from Nuremberg, Germany. As was the tradition in the 15 th and 16 th century, Durer apprenticed in the workshop of another artist where he

(Photo from Monoprints.com)

Art Appreciation

learned the fundamentals of painting, printmaking and book publishing. After traveling to Italy, he was greatly influenced by the Italian Renaissance masters and the revival of classical Greek and Roman ideas that pervaded Renaissance thinking and art. Besides using the woodcut technique to illustrate fifteen revelations of St. John in the series known as the Apocalypse, Durer also made woodcuts depicting the Passion of Christ and the Life of the Virgin, both popular themes during this time. Most of Durer’s woodcuts such as the works made in support of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, scientific studies of measurement and proportion, and the work with Christian themes, were created using the black and white woodcut technique.

Some of the best examples of the multiple color woodcut technique can be found in the work of Japanese woodcut masters Ando Hiroshige and Kaksushika Hokusai. Using multiple blocks of wood, the work of Hokusai focuses on the landscape and nature. One of the best known examples is The Great Wave of Kanagawa. Here the overwhelming power of nature

can be seen in the huge wave as it is caught in the moment before it crashes down next to the boat and the ever present Mt. Fuji in the background. A contemporary of Hokusai, the work of Ando Hiroshige also is primarily about the overwhelming power of the landscape in relation to the small part that the human plays in nature. While both artists worked with the landscape, a careful look reveals individual characteristics in each artist’s work.

Not only did the German artist Albrecht Durer create many woodcuts, but he also created many works using intaglio processes. Most of his intaglio works used the engraving process, but there are also examples of etchings by Durer. The subjects of many of his engravings vary, but he had a special skill for creating portraits that seemed to reveal the personality of the sitter. Another artist who created many portraits was the 17 th century German painter Rembrandt. Most of Rembrandt’s over three hundred prints are in the form of etchings, drypoints, or a combination of these two processes. He worked in Amsterdam, the leading art center of Holland, during much of his life, and created many self-portraits, works with Christian themes, and landscapes. His work shows a strong interest in the chiaroscuro lighting that was popular with the Italian painter Caravaggio. The organization of the compositions also shows a great amount of genius in the placement of figures, objects, and arrangement of light and dark areas.

Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist artist who was known for her domestic images of women and children, was another artist who created many intaglio prints. While working in Paris with other 19 th century Impressionist artists such as her close friend Edgar Degas, Cassatt created

The Praying Hands Albrecht Durer

The Sea off Satta woodcut by Hiroshige

Self-portrait in a cap, with eyes wide open.

Rembrandt

Media Explorations in Printmaking

many drypoints in a similar style to her paintings and drawings. Like Degas, Cassatt was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints. Her etchings and aquatints often reflect the ornamental patterning and unusual angles of view that are characteristic of Japanese prints.

An idea that Degas borrowed from the Japanese woodblock print was the use of a silhouetted back view of a figure. His printmaking work involved many intaglio prints but he also experimented extensively with the monotype process. Degas would often use pastel or watercolor over the top of his monotypes to create a mixed media effect. Typically Degas would use oil colors and lithographic ink to create the initial monotype image.

A contemporary printmaker who uses the lithography technique is the artist Robert Rauschenberg. He often sensitizes his plates with photographic emulsion in order to reproduce photographs in his lithography work. Some of his work combines both the traditional

stone lithography with the recently invented metal plate lithography technique. Many of Rauschenberg’s ideas derive from popular culture and current events. His work since the 1960’s has often addressed social and political issues such as the war in Vietnam, apartheid, the environment, and nuclear disarmament.

The final technique, serigraphy, was a technique often used by the contemporary artist Andy Warhol, who is known for saying that everybody will one day have fifteen minutes of fame. Many works by Warhol are photographic serigraphs such as self-portraits and portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe. The silk screen process allowed for the rapid production of multiples and produced a result of bold painterly images.

Printmaking continues to be a media explored by many artists today. Often

sculptors, painters, drawers, and even photographers will create prints as a secondary media to enhance their artistic emphasis. Another reason that artists create prints is for a less expensive means for people to afford an original work. For example, an ordinary person may find it difficult to purchase a large sculpture, but a print by the same artist may only cost one or two hundred dollars. With such a wide range of processes and effects that can be created with printmaking, it can also be an enjoyable form of art for all ages.

Under the Horse Chestnut Tree drypoint and aquatint

Mary Cassatt