FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is printmaking? Does it mean you just sit by a computer and print things out all day?
Printmaking is the artistic process of transferring an image from a matrix (wood, metal, stone) to a substrate (paper, fabric), using inks and applying controlled pressure. The benefit of printmaking is that you can create multiple impressions from the same matrix, and each impression is considered an original. The printmaking I do has very little to do with computers, although there are some processes where an image may be digitally modified before being used in a printmaking technique. Scroll down to learn more about different printmaking techniques and terminology.
In your prints with text, why are some of the letters backwards?
Printmaking requires the artist to think in mirror-images. What you carve/etch/draw will print in the reverse, so you have to plan ahead and reverse your images and text on the block/plate so that when they print, they are the right way around. In my Catharsis print series, I worked in traditional stone lithography. To create the text, I used a sharpie pen and wrote the entire narrative on the stone—backwards. That meant writing from right to left, reversing each letter as I went along. Naturally, I made a few errors (especially with letters that are already mirrors: p & q, b & d, s & z) and wrote those the “forwards” way, which then meant they printed backwards.
Did you always want to be an artist?
Nope, not at all! Like many people, I went through a host of dream careers as a child, including inventor, astronaut, and executive chef. In high school, when I realized that college applications look better with an internship on them, I thought deeply about what I enjoy doing, and what skills I already had. I’ve always liked looking at art, and I’m good at explaining things, so I looked for teen opportunities at museums. I applied to, and was accepted by, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Youth Insights Program. For two years, I got to know the ins and outs of the museum, designed tours around works in the collection, met and interviewed contemporary artists, went on field trips to other NYC art institutions, and engaged in other museum programs for community youth. I also took AP Art History and Photography in school. With these experiences, I entered college certain that I would want to be an art historian, and had the goal of becoming a museum curator or private collection advisor. Obviously, things changed along the way.
How and when did you get interested in printmaking?
I think I made my first print in grade school, but it wasn’t until college when I was taking art studio classes to supplement my declared art history major, that I got hooked. The class was "Intro to Graphics,” and the assignment was multi-stepped. First, we had to create a pin-hole camera out of a soda can, then take a photograph of an every day item from an odd or disorienting angle, and lastly, after developing and printing the photograph in the darkroom, turn that image into a linocut print. I took a picture of a tree trunk from down at the very base. When it came time to carve my linoleum block, I was so interested in how light and shadow turned into positive and negative space, and how different cuts and marks could express areas of gray and the textures of bark. From there I decided to take a few more classes that focused fully on printmaking.
Why did you decide to switch from art history to art studio?
It was really a straightforward decision: the professor under whom I wanted to write my senior art history thesis (Freud, Schiele, and Kokoschka: The Influence of Psychoanalysis in Austrian Expressionist Portraiture) was scheduled to be on sabbatical for the semester I planned to write. Instead of changing advisors, I changed majors entirely. I realized I would rather take Advanced Printmaking with my first choice printmaking professor, and develop a senior thesis’s worth of work in it, than write a 30-page paper with a second choice thesis advisor. Luckily for me, it all worked out!
Is printmaking what pays the bills?
Not even a little bit! I have a deep love for printmaking and I hope to continue working in the medium for the rest of my life, but it is not my career. It’s extremely difficult to make a living as a full-time fine artist, and opportunities are few. I decided that I have other interests and skills I can develop into a career to support myself while maintaining an active art practice on the side.
METHODS OF PRINTMAKING
monotype
As the most simple print process, all it requires is applying ink directly to a smooth matrix with no marks or scratches, such as a plate of plexiglass, and printing directly from that. The ink can be applied with a brush, or wiped, or daubed, or however the artist chooses. When the image is complete, a substrate such as paper is applied to the inked surface, and they are run through a press to transfer the ink to the paper permanently. This creates a unique work on paper.
monoPRINT
A monoprint, unlike a monotype, is one in a series of related prints, instead of one-off unique works on paper. A series of monoprints reflect variations on a theme, the “theme” being an image that has been permanently incorporated onto the chosen matrix. By applying different pigments, adding distinct elements such as chine collé or hand coloring, the artist makes each print unique, save for the underlying image that is the shared constant.
collagraph
Collagraphs are all about texture. The artist arranges and adheres flattened items with unique textures or outlines—such as lace, plants, sand, hair, bubblewrap, cut cardboard, etc—to a rigid surface, inks the surface of the items, and applies pressure to the back of a sheet of paper to print the image onto it. The resulted print is often highly embossed, and can be editioned.
Image: Yasuyo Tanaka
relief
Ever used a rubber stamp? Yes? Then you’ve made a relief print! The concept is simple: a flat matrix (such as wood, rubber, or linoleum) is carved by the artist. The surface that was not carved away is what’s left in relief. That surface is inked, and pressed against a receiving material like paper or fabric. The resulting image is a relief print.
reduction woodcut
This process layers colors in the same relief print, using the same matrix, with carving continuing to reduce the amount of surface left in relief between each color layer. Important considerations are ink opacity, registration (to make sure each layer of ink lines up perfectly with the layers already printed before it), and edition size (once you carve the second layer you cannot ever print more of the first).
intaglio
The term “intaglio” covers six different plate-based print processes: engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint, mezzotint, and photogravure. While each process requires a different method of application, the principle is the same. Lines are incised into the surface of a metal plate (typically copper or zinc); ink is rubbed into the lines and cleaned from the rest of the surface; damp paper is placed over the inked plate; pressure is applied, transferring the ink held in the lines to the paper. Multiple intaglio processes can be used on the same plate for added complexity.
Image: Rembrandt, The Virgin and Child with a Cat, 1654. Original copper etching plate and print.
lithograph
Also known as offset printing, lithography is predicated on the scientific rule that water and oil repel each other. The artist draws or paints on the smooth surface of a specially cut slab of limestone with an oil-based mark maker, such as an oil crayon or tusche. An acid is then applied to the surface to etch the stone. The surface level of the stone does not change; rather, the acid “locks in” the properties of the stone’s surface at that state. What was drawn on with oil-based substances will be permanently hydrophobic, and what was open stone will remain hydrophilic. Water is sponged across the stone, and ink rolled over the surface. The open hydrophilic spaces have a slight bead of water on top, whereas the drawing (hydrophobic) does not. This beading prevents the rolling ink from sticking to the open stone, and only the drawing will receive the ink. After a few rounds of inking, paper is placed over the stone and together they are run through a press with 1000+ lbs of pressure to transfer the image.
serigraph
Commonly known as screenprinting, this is a stencil printing technique that utilizes a mesh screen stretched across a frame. The screen is pre-treated to have an image block out parts of the mesh, creating a stencil. Using a squeegee, the artist pushes ink through the mesh in the non-image area of the screen, transferring the ink to the substrate (paper, fabric such as t-shirts) beneath it.
Risograph
Riso can be described as the lovechild of a photocopier and a silkscreen—it combines the stencil-printing capabilities of serigraphy with the convenience and output volume of a photocopier. The artist uploads an image/graphic to the machine, which creates a thermographic master screen. The master screen is adhered around the drum of an ink cartridge. As paper is passed through the machine, the drum rotates and the ink within the cartridge is pushed through the holes in the master screen. Some riso machines have multi-drum capacity, so multiple color layers can be printed at once.
MORE PRINTMAKING TERMS
Baren — A flat, circular hand tool used to apply pressure the back of printing paper laid on an inked block or plate. This forces the transfer of ink from block to paper.
Bleed Print— A print that has the image extend all the way to the edge of the paper.
Brayer — A small hand roller used to roll ink onto printing blocks and plates. It is an essential tool to printmaking.
Chine Collé — A printmaking technique in which the image is transferred onto a surface that is bonded onto a heavier support in the printing process. One purpose is to allow the printmaker to print on a much more delicate surface, such as Japanese paper or linen, that pulls finer details off the plate. Chine Collé can be used in conjunction with any method of printmaking.
Edition — A set of prints pulled from a common matrix.
* Limited Edition — An edition of identical prints with a limited total number, typically printed within a single period of time. Each print is marked which number it is within the edition. A smaller edition size means each print is rarer, and of higher value.
* Open Edition — An edition of identical prints with an unlimited total number. Open editions are often printed as needed, or in batches.
* Variable Edition — A set of prints from a common matrix that have been individually worked on so that each print has unique aspects around the identical base image (e.g. using different color inks or printing on different papers; hand-painting different backgrounds on each print; adding to, subtracting from, or otherwise manipulating the image).
Matrix — A physical surface that can be manipulated to hold ink, which is then transferred to a substrate (e.g. wood block, copper plate, lithography stone, silk screen).
Proof — A “draft” print pulled as part of the creative process, or any print that is not part of the regular edition.
* AP (Artist’s Proof) — A small number of final-form prints not included in the regular edition number that are for the artist’s personal use, typically 10% of the total run.
* BAT (Bon A Tirer) — Meaning “good to pull,” the BAT is single final-form print indicating that how the image appears on this print is the artist’s standard for the work. In a workshop or commercial setting, where an artist has assistants/professional printers who complete some or all stages of printing the edition, the BAT is the reference print that the assistants/printers are expected to replicate for the edition.
* CP (Color Proof) — A mid-process print as the artist experiments with different color options.
* HC (Hors d’Commerce) — A final-form print meant for promotional use (sent as a sample to galleries or dealers), not always signed.
* TP (Trial Proof) — A mid-process print as the artist previews how certain elements of the image translate from matrix to substrate.
* PP (Printer’s Proof) — A final-form print given to the printer (if other than the artist) for their own archives, typically signed by the artist as a gesture of gratitude.
* WP (Working Proof) — A mid-process trial proof that the artist has marked by hand as they consider changes to the image’s composition.
Registration — Lining the paper up with the block or plate to in order to get a specific and precise placement of the printed image onto the paper.
Substrate — Any surface on which printing is done; paper, fabric, metal, plastics, etc.
Unique — An artwork that has no duplicate, either by nature of the process, or by choice of the artist.