Printmaking

Printmaking is the technique of producing artworks by printing them on a variety of surfaces, most often paper, but sometimes cloth, wood, metal, and other materials as well. A photograph of a visual artwork that would be printed using an electronic machine (a printer) is typically referred to as "traditional printmaking." However, there is some crossover between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph, which is a technique that is used to create prints using hand processed techniques. A print is a duplicate of an artwork that is produced by a printing technique, with the exception of monotyping, which can only create one exact duplicate of the same artwork. Each print created is regarded a "original" piece of art, and it is properly referred to as a "impression" rather than a "copy" of the original (that means a different print copying the first, common in early printmaking). However, whether deliberately or unintentionally, perceptions may differ significantly. Master printmakers are highly skilled specialists who are capable of printing identical "impressions" by hand on a large number of sheets of paper. Historically, many printed pictures were produced as a preliminary study, such as a sketch, before being printed. A "reproductive print" is a print that is a reproduction of another piece of art, most often a painting.

By using a number of methods, prints are produced by transferring ink from a matrix to a piece of paper or other suitable material. Materia include metal etching plates, usually copper or zinc, or polymer plates and other thicker plastic sheets for engraving or etching; stone, aluminium, or polymer for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood etchings; and linoleum for linocuts. Materia are also used in other types of printing, such as screen printing. Screen printing is accomplished via the use of silk or synthetic textiles as printing screens. Following that, we'll go through several more kinds of matrix substrates and associated processes.