Nil Santana
Nil Santana You’re right. I had seeing that one as well. Both are very intere…More »
Julie Neill reminds me of this white stripes video: http://www.youtube.com/wa…More »
Brandy Rains I think all three artists had incredible stories to tell, but I e…More »
Brittany Reynolds I enjoyed reading “Storytelling in Gropper’s Late Etchings”. I th…More »
Sam Russell I enjoyed the Fritz Eichenberg’s article. I decided to view the w…More »
Sarahcuda After reading this journal about Printmaking and Storytelling my …More »
Chelsey Tatum Absolutely not. I think there is a lot to be said about the p…More »
Sarahcuda I don’t think that printmaking is dead. I do believe that less …More »
Brandy Rains I agree with everyone else so far. And also, I seem to be unorigi…More »
Nil Santana I am really enjoying the comments so far. Eventually, we all agre…More »
Shawn Ogden Is printmaking dead? Is art dead? How can we know for sure, and w…More »
Leanne Kawahigashi After reading the article, I don’t think that printmaking is dead…More »
Shennae Steele Don’t think printmaking is dead because they are different toys a…More »
Brittany Reynolds I think that printmaking is not dead. There may be different ways…More »
Stephanie Cochran I do not think that printmaking is dead. It may have evolved int…More »
Sam Russell Firstly, Mr. Ken Johnson receives the “Fat Bag of Fail Award”…More »
All prints must be mounted ON matte-board (no need to cut windows and mount from the back).
Intaglio (pronounced in-TAL-ee-oh) is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint. Collagraphs may also be printed as intaglio plates. To print an intaglio plate, ink is applied to the surface and then rubbed with tarlatan cloth to remove most of the excess. The final smooth wipe is often done with newspaper or old public phone book pages, leaving ink only in the incisions. A damp piece of paper is placed on top and the plate and paper are run through a printing press that, through pressure, transfers the ink from the recesses of the plate to the paper.
Intaglio techniques are often combined on a plate. For example Rembrandt’s prints are referred to as “etchings” for convenience, but very often they have engraving and drypoint work as well, and sometimes no actual etching at all.
The Inferno, Canto 12, engraving by Gustave Doré.
Drypoint is the most direct of all intaglio techniques. A sharp drypoint needle and a metal plate (or plexiglass) is all you need. Copper is ideal, but you can achieve almost same desired effect with plexiglass sheets, which are more cost efficient. The image is produced by scratching the surface with a sharp needle creating grooves on the surface. Those grooves will hold the printing ink.
Please download and read the Journal below, then choose one of the three essays for comments.
1. Storytelling in Gropper’s Late Etchings
2. Olivier Deprez’s Storytelling in Le Chateau de Kafka
3. Fritz Eichenberg’s Saint Francis: Showing Humanity’s Duality
This post will be open until April 9th.
Relief printing is one of the oldest forms of printmaking and accessible to everyone, even those without a press. In relief printmaking, the uppermost surface of the material is inked-up, and printed from, as with a rubber stamp. The cut marks below the surface do not receive any ink and therefore will not print.
Linocut technique: a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called a brayer), and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a press.
Although linoleum as a floor covering dates to the 1860, the linocut printing technique was used first by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905-13 where it had been similarly used for wallpaper printing. They initially described their prints as woodcuts however, which sounded more respectable.
As the material being carved has no particular direction to its grain and does not tend to split, it is easier to obtain certain artistic effects with Lino than with most woods, although the resultant prints can lack the often angular grainy character of woodcuts and engravings. Lino is much easier to cut than wood; especially when heated, but the pressure of the printing process degrades the plate faster and it is difficult to create larger works due to the material’s fragility.
