A print is an impression taken by means of contact with an inked plate, screen, or block, such as stone, wood or lino. The end product is not a reproduction but is an original work of art, usually forming part of an edition, in which each print is signed and numbered by the artist.

Members of Penwith Printmakers are dedicated to real printmaking, and in this site we aim to share that enthusiasm with a wider public.

This page will describe seven of the main types of traditional printmaking: intaglio methods such as etching and drypoint; relief methods like linocut, woodcut and wood engraving; screenprinting; and monoprinting. It is not intended as a primer and only brief explanations of the processes are given. All printmakers develop their own preferred procedures - we want to share with you the ways which work for us, in order to give you a general understanding of how our prints are made.

RELIEF

The relief or raised surface method of printmaking in which a design is carved on to a flat block, rolled with ink and then printed, is arguably the oldest of the print media. It was first developed in China between AD 600 - 900. Woodcut, wood engraving and linocut fall into this category.

WOODCUT - This printform came into its own in the 15th century once type had been invented, as woodcuts were used to illustrate the first printed blocks. In this method, a piece of flat, well-seasoned wood is selected - plank-wood, where the wood is cut in the direction of the grain, is ideal - a design is drawn on to the surface and is cut out with a craft-knife. The next stage is to carve away from the cut line with a gouge, so that the part of the block which you wish to print, stands up in relief.

WOOD ENGRAVING - followed woodcut as a common form of book illustration in the 18th and 19th centuries, until photo-reproduction was invented in the 20th century. Its most famous practitioner was Thomas Bewick (1757 - 1828) who made delightful engravings of birds, beasts and country scenes. This differs from woodcut in that the end grain of a block of hard wood is used, pear, maple, lemon or boxwood being the most suitable. Specialised tools are used to engrave the smooth surface of the wood, creating finer detail and a more delicately precise effect than is possible with the woodcut or linocut. The tools used have wonderful names like scorper, spitsticker and bullsticker.

LINOCUT - Lino is obviously a more recent development in relief printing. The principles however are much the same except that as a lino has a smooth, less grainy surface, it can be more easily cut in any direction, again using specialised tools. The best lino is that supplied by craft retailers and is at least .25" thick. This is a very versatile medium and many artists including Matisse and Picasso have used it.

All three relief media can be printed in the same way. In each, a thin layer of printing ink is applied to the surface of the block using a roller. A piece of paper is placed on to the inked surface. Next, using a baren, a special tool devised for the purpose, or failing that, a spoon, the back of the paper is carefully rubbed over the entire surface of the block. The paper is then carefully peeled back to see the printed design. For larger pieces and long editions, a printing press is normally used.

To create a linocut incorporating two or more colours is more complicated. Using the elimination or reduction method, the lino is rolled with the lightest colour first, yellow for example, and proofs (say, six prints) are taken. Then the block is cleaned and dried and those areas of the design which are to remain yellow are cut out on the lino. The block is then inked up in the next colour, green, and taking care to place each piece of paper in exactly the same position as the first time, each proof is overprinted with the green ink. The process is repeated, parts of the lino cut out, the block being re-inked, until the design is complete. By this time, most of the lino will have been cut away.

INTAGLIO

Unlike relief methods of printmaking, where only surface contact makes an impression and grooves stay white, in intaglio printing, the impression comes from ink being squeezed out of the grooves by the roller pressure of a press on to damp paper covering the plate. Thus from the groove comes a black line. Drypoint, engraving, mezzotint and etching fall into this category. Etching and drypoint are described below.

ETCHING - This method of using a mordant (i.e. biting medium) to make incised lines on metal goes back over four hundred years. There are records of armour having designs put on to it using solutions of vinegar and salt. When the use of stronger acid was found to be a more effective way of biting lines in metal, craftsmen saw the possibility of reproducing drawings. Several prints, in an edition, or series, though virtually identical are individually made. Each one bears the personal qualities of the artist's hand. In an etching there can be the fine whisper of silvery line from the same plate as a full blooded black, a range of expression that can never be equalled in a pen and ink drawing.

Etching made the leap forward from duplicating drawings to an art form in itself thanks largely to Rembrandt in 17th century Holland. He was able to create astonishing variations in tone, producing subtle or dramatic compositions at will. Goya working in Spain in the 18th century used his first hand knowledge of bull-fighting to create etchings which in black and white imply the light and colour of the bull ring. At the same period in France the technique of aquatint was introduced - a means of creating tone by melting resin dust on to a plate, the tiny globules of the resin creating a texture that brief or longer dips in acid make light or dark as needed.

In the 19th century many artists used etching to create their images. Corot and Millet were members of the Barbizon School of France. Whistler created wonderfully atmospheric prints of the Thames waterfront and introduced the idea of numbering and signing them. Even Queen Victoria tried her hand at this form of printmaking.

Etching is a demanding process requiring awareness throughout of acid temperatures and strength, the nature of the metal in use, ink and paper qualities and so on. A plate - copper, zinc or steel - has a layer of melted wax rolled on to it and is smoked by tapers to produce a matt surface. The drawing is made with a needle, each stroke exposing metal beneath the wax. These lines are bitten in the acid bath forming grooves which hold ink. Acid fumes and resin dust are dangerous and precautions have to be taken when using these agents.

Inking a plate by tamping ink into the etched lines takes time and needs care. Surplus is wiped off with scrim and final polishes are given with paper and/or the hand, then damp paper is placed on to the press which winds both through under pressure to squeeze ink from the grooves. The print is pulled off the plate - a hold-the-breath moment of truth - before being put carefully to dry. The whole sequence of inking, wiping and printing can take up to an hour for one print - more if two plates for superimposed colours are used.

DRYPOINT - The line is scratched or cut directly into the surface of a dry, i.e. uncoated, plate of metal (copper, zinc or aluminium) or plastic, usually with a sharp steel point. A softer, fuzzier line is thus produced than is the case with etching. There is no need for surface preparations, making it a more immediate technique, but the plate impression will wear more quickly during printing than an etched one would, generally giving a comparatively small print run before quality begins to deteriorate.

SCREENPRINTING

Although it is one of the youngest of the main printing processes and a product of the 20th century, its roots in stencilling go back into prehistory when the first cave-artists daubed pigments around the hand to create an image. Stencilled decorations have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, while the Japanese and Chinese used stencilling to print on fabric.

The first patents for screenprinting as we know it today were taken out in Britain in 1907. It developed firstly as a cost-effective commercial process for the production of coloured labels and packaging for products like soap powder. From the 1930's artists began to see the creative potential of screenprinting or serigraphy as it is sometimes called (Latin: seri, silk and Greek: graphos, to write). It was the Pop art movement and artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol who in the 1960's detached it from its mainly commercial image and made it a respected art medium.

In screenprinting an image is printed by forcing ink through a stencil attached to a fabric mesh which is stretched over a frame. The tool used to apply the ink is a squeegee - a length of wood with a rubber blade inserted into it. The stencil can be of paper; it can be painted directly on to the screen or it can be placed there by photographic means. Ink can be oil or water based. Screenprinting may be used on a variety of surfaces besides paper, including fabric, wood and metal.

As with the other printforms, there are many methods which can be followed within screenprinting. A relatively simple, craft-orientated approach involves the use of a screen-blocking liquid called filler which is painted directly on to the screen to create a negative stencil. With the reduction method of screenprinting, as with printing a coloured linocut, the whole edition is printed at once. Only one screen is used, the design emerging as different areas of the mesh are blocked out.

Beneath the screen and hinged to it is a backing board. On this a carefully positioned drawing acts as a design and registration guide throughout. The whole of the screen is then masked off apart from the area immediately above the drawing which is visible through the mesh. The palest colour is usually printed first. If there are to be thirty prints in the edition, thirty pieces of paper have to be printed with this colour and hung up to dry.

In the printing process the ink is swept over the screen with the squeegee on to the paper which is carefully placed beneath the mesh, above the drawing and within registration guides. Once all thirty pieces of paper have been printed with the initial colour, the screen is cleaned and dried. Where this colour is to remain in the print, say, part of a cloud and the petals of a daisy, these areas have to be blocked out on the screen, with the filler and a fine brush. The next colour of ink is then selected and every print must be over-printed, taking care over the registration or the image will become blurred.

Every colour in a screenprint is generally a separate layer of ink, although it is possible to blend several inks together to create a graded effect. usually the print is built up with layers of ink until the design is complete.

MONOPRINTING

A monoprint is a one-off impression made by applying ink or paint to a flat surface like glass or metal and then transferring the image to another surface, usually a piece of printing paper. The marks and textures obtained are different from those drawn or painted directly on to paper or canvas.

One method of monoprinting is to put paper on an inked surface and draw an image on the back of the paper. The pressure of the drawing transfers ink on to the underside of the paper, creating, when it is peeled back, a characteristically soft-edged drawing.

Another technique is to print from lino or a paper plate. In this method, an image can be drawn or inks can be rolled on to the surface. Areas of ink can be removed using rags dampened with white spirit. When the image is complete, paper is placed on to the plate and together they are put through a printing press. Alternatively the back of the paper can be smoothed with a wooden spoon thus transferring the image to the paper.

Multi-coloured images can be printed by allowing the first print to dry and adding ink to the original plate, or another plate of exactly the same size. The first dried print is placed on to the plate and put through the press. The result will be a combination of both plates.

Almost any flat smooth surface can be used as a plate to make a monoprint. Printing inks or oil paints can be applied directly on to copper plate, a popular method with 20th century artists such as Chagall.