Printmaking

Mount Fuji, from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai

Printmaking is making art by printing pictures, normally on paper. The advantage of printmaking is that lots of the same picture can be printed. This is called a print. Each print is not a copy, but an original, since it came from the same source (not like painting or drawing).You can also use different types of techniques to start the print.

Materials

Pictures for prints can be cut into plates of metal, usually copper or zinc for engraving or etching; stone, used for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts, linoleum for linocuts and fabric plates for screen-printing. Prints may also be published in books by the artist.

Printmaking Media

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  Katsushika Hokusai The Underwave off Kanagawa, 1829/1833, color woodcut, Rijksmuseum Collection

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  Rembrandt, Self-portrait, etching, c. 1630

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  Félix Vallotton, La raison probante (The Cogent Reason), woodcut from the series Intimités, (1898)

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  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Portrait of Otto Müller, 1915

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  Melencolia I, 1514 engraving by Albrecht Dürer, one of the most important printmakers.

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  Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome in his Study, 1514.

Other websites

• A glossary for modern prints
• Large list of links to museum etc. online images of prints
• UnitTwentyFive London Based Print Studio Archived 2008-09-17 at the Wayback Machine