The art of Printmaking
Wednesday, 16. July 2008, 18:28:59
The artist will paint their image or design w/ printer's ink or paint onto a piece of plexi plate or aluminum plate. The plate is placed on the press table, then damp paper is placed on top of the inked or painted plate, a piece of newsprint placed on top of that to protect any ink from getting on the three different thicknesses of a of type padding that is the last layer. Then you turn the handle and the table runs underneath the press. Usually you will get one good print and a ghost....sometimes even a second ghost. The ghost prints can be drawn on with graphite, color pencils or painted on w/ watercolor to embellish them further.
Relief printmaking is also a fun process whereby you draw onto a piece of wood or lineoleum, then cut away with a special gouging tool the part to have no color. I love the results from this as well but the gouging and cutting eventually causes cramping in my hands and fingers. I must take many breaks when doing this.

One of my favorite artist printmakers is Kathe Kollwitz. Here is one of her self portraits.
I did two monoprints to pay homage to another artist, Edvard Munch, and his painting The Scream, which was stolen from a museum then later found.

Here is one of my Homage to the Scream monoprints:















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Nicolas Borgsmidt # 17. July 2008, 10:16
Allan # 17. July 2008, 12:25
Thanks for the push in the right direction.
Good work!
Tyler Parke Young # 17. July 2008, 12:44
PainterWoman # 17. July 2008, 14:25
Alan, if you get a chance, look up Kathe Kollwitz on Wikipedia. She was an amazing artist and her bio is very interesting. The article will have links with more information on printmaking, relief printmaking, etc. I know there are a few details I left out when talking of the process....I kept having to go back and edit as I remembered things. In 'My Art' album, you will see the actual piece of linoleum and wood I cut my design out on. The pieces of tape you see at the edges of the board these pieces are glued on, were for keeping the paper straight.
Tyler, I'm glad you feel I am educating you. Sometimes I amaze myself with what I remember. The furniture is not done yet. My son said to leave the smaller dressers for them to do when they get here. And, yes, I am now drinking coffee and you should have been a drill sargeant......but my ex WAS a drill sargeant....and I didn't listen to him either.
Nicolas Borgsmidt # 17. July 2008, 16:52
Allan # 17. July 2008, 16:58
Edward Piercy # 17. July 2008, 21:55
Tyler Parke Young # 17. July 2008, 22:31
PainterWoman # 17. July 2008, 23:50
Allan, thanks.
Ed, I getcha. I just draw the image the way I want it, knowing it will be reversed. I would have a huge problem if I tried to think in reverse..... or draw it in reverse......now I don't know if I'M making sense.
Tyler, my ex wasn't a DI, he is old world Italian and seems mad all the time.
deborah # 18. July 2008, 02:53
Nicolas Borgsmidt # 18. July 2008, 08:38
You might find some other stuff you need too
Tyler Parke Young # 18. July 2008, 13:25
PainterWoman # 18. July 2008, 14:04
Nic: "You might find some other stuff you need too"
That's what I'm afraid of.
Tyler: Nope, he was neither of those.....just a grumpy man,
Nicolas Borgsmidt # 18. July 2008, 19:53
Tyler Parke Young # 18. July 2008, 21:52
Edward Piercy # 19. July 2008, 18:21
Tyler Parke Young # 20. July 2008, 16:18
PainterWoman # 20. July 2008, 21:52
Tyler, I know....
you can write about an artist character in your next novel.
Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 02:38
Matthew # 21. July 2008, 18:37
PainterWoman # 21. July 2008, 18:52
Nicolas Borgsmidt # 21. July 2008, 19:36
Matthew # 21. July 2008, 20:09
Our biggest problem was that we made the platten out of wood. The metal in the press did pretty well, but the wood bowed under pressure.
Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 21:26
PainterWoman # 21. July 2008, 21:42
Using all these ideas, I think I'm going to use a cutting board on the floor as the table, put all the materials on that, then use a rolling pin (or pen?) as the press to roll over the paper. I'm thinking with both my hands and upper body leaning into it, it might work. I don't know. Time for some experimentation.
But it'll have to wait a few days. I'm still working on that damn dresser. It's wearing me out!
Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 21:46
PainterWoman # 21. July 2008, 22:13
FINALLY, I found the name of it. It was bugging me. It's called a 'baren'. The one I have has a padded bottom with a handle.
I'm going to have to leave again. I'm finding that the more I do for other people (even tho some of it I get paid for) the less I get done at my own house. I'm getting wore out and everything here's a mess and maybe that's why I'm out of sorts today.
I'm rarely this way....and that bugs me too.
Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 22:23
deborah # 21. July 2008, 22:42
i was thinking of template, but i knew that was inaccurate. what if you figured out how to stand on the device? that wouldn't work, becuase the baren has to roll . . . . let me put my thinking cap on. i'll be back!
PainterWoman # 22. July 2008, 00:00
It's the Brayer that has to roll the ink on, and the Baren is used to rub the back of the paper. Now if I can just remember those words! My print teacher would always get annoyed with me because I would say 'that rolling thing' or 'that rubbing thingy'. He threatened to give us a vocabulary test at one point because we were all saying the same thing!
p.s. I feel better now. I showered, dressed up, and now I'm REALLY leaving for the pet food store and back to my son's to feed his cats.
scott cumming # 22. July 2008, 05:17
all i need to know is that i am compelled to say something... preferably something new.
kollwitz was a 'driven' artist and i always admired her skill. but it's 'lopsided'. the content appeals to an imaginary compassion... a sentimental substitute for conscience.
we use whatever we can get. we adapt to every medium. we are here to propose the principle that life is a good thing. but there is a lot of confusion about 'expression'. and there is even more confusion about when it is right to cause pain.
you have to go way back and understand the nature of art is to raise the 'food' of impressions to the level of 'beauty' or 'knowledge'.
the 'emperor's clothes' of modern aesthetics is the acceptance of any old thing. right now we are in a wasteland. because no one knows.
PainterWoman # 22. July 2008, 05:59
This said it all: "the 'emperor's clothes' of modern aesthetics is the acceptance of any old thing. right now we are in a wasteland. because no one knows."
scott cumming # 22. July 2008, 06:02
Tyler Parke Young # 22. July 2008, 13:22
PainterWoman # 22. July 2008, 14:18
p.s. and no free art:D
Tyler Parke Young # 22. July 2008, 21:13
Matthew # 23. July 2008, 13:09
Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 13:47
Matthew # 23. July 2008, 13:58
I think you're about right - '57 was the tipping point - though there were some shows that ran into the 60's. "Have Gun, Will Travel" (remember Paladin?) springs to mind: the TV show actually spawned the radio show. The TV show ran from '57-'63, and the radio show ran for 225 episodes starting in 1958 and ending in 1960.
Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 14:01
PainterWoman # 23. July 2008, 14:02
Yes, it certainly can. There are only a few things I watch on a semi-regular basis. The remodeling shows on HGTV have taught me many things and the true cold case and the supposedly fictional crime investigation shows. The one with William Peterson being my favorite. If I were 20 yrs old again, I'd be an artist for the FBI.
Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 14:05
Matthew # 23. July 2008, 14:07
PainterWoman # 23. July 2008, 14:14
Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 14:28
Matthew # 23. July 2008, 15:00
Then they did the background check..
Henar # 24. July 2008, 12:25
I also love Kathe Köllwitz, in fact all of the german expresionists are great at printmaking (I specially like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff).
I had never heard of ghost prints... that´s a nice idea, and I´m sure you can get really interesting images after working on the prints with other techniques. Thanks for the tip!!!
I had the same problem when I left school... it´s useless trying to get the same quality prints using a baren or a wooden spoon. In Spain it´s also very expensive buying a press, even a small one... I tried looking for a second hand one, but it was not so easy. Anyway, if you find any nice solution, please let me know!
Edwardpiercy, the easiest way to draw the original image and then getting the reverse is scanning it and using photoshop to make it turn over. Then print it and that´s it!
I´ve also done some silk screen printing, and I´m sorry to say that the tools are even more expensive than a press.
What I usually do is design a few prints and then rent a workshop for a couple of hours to get the printing done. In Spain there´s lots of workshops you can rent to do this. This is cheaper than buying a press.
I´ll try scanning a print and poetry book I made, using linoleum, wood and silk screen printing, and hope to have the images in my blog next monday, so you can see the nice results you can get mixing all these techniques.
PainterWoman # 24. July 2008, 13:38
The ghost prints are fun to work on with other mediums. Graphite was usually too light but a very fine point ink pen works great. Many of the students didn't bother w/ ghost prints because it was not a requirement. I always made 1 to 3 depending on how much ink or paint was left on the plate. I knew I wouldn't have access to a press after school but knew I'd have these ghosts to work on.
We have workshops as well but we have to pay in advance for one session a week for six weeks. In a way, it is like a class because there is an instructor but he/she does not grade us and is there only for questions or to show us a technique we have never done before. I experimented a lot in one using cut up prints and collage and using texture. I would place leaves, netting, or other things on the plate after it has been inked, then the paper. Then you will have a white shape of a leaf, or the white texture of netting. Very fun and interesting. The ideas are endless.
scott cumming # 25. July 2008, 05:38
if i am wrong you will let me know. are their salaries a matter of public record?
in which case i would say that things are beyond the pale.
Tyler Parke Young # 25. July 2008, 12:07