Print


2020 04 19    |    etc    no date    2024 +    2025    entries    home

I again encountered someone confused by what print means in the art world as opposed to the definition of print which denotes a straight up copy of something. Like posters would be, for example.

In art, when you talk about the results of the process of printmaking, not copying, they are also prints, and copies, but not in the same sense. A print (from printmaking) is a copy of what's on the print plate. Even were you to use the same print plate, paper, and colour of ink, no two prints produced in this manner will be exactly the same.

This video (*) shows a print run using the process used in wood block or linocut, where the image is carved into a block of wood or sheet of linoleum, inked, and the paper placed on it and either hand-barened or run through a press. This is also a reductive method of printmaking. These are usually multicolour prints where the separate colours are printed from the same image in separate, multiple passes. You would carve the first layer of the image, choose how many prints you're going to make, cover the plate with ink or paint, make those first layer prints, then carve out for the next layer/colour and run those pages on those plates again. You keep doing this until all layers/colours are completed. The print plate cannot be reformatted to be used again, so prints made in this manner are a limited edition. Also, mistakes made in the carving process can't be undone either. You either start over or make the best of it and push on. You can use multiple wood blocks or linoleum sheets and carve one for each layer/colour, which would give you the ability to print an unlimited number of runs.

There are prints made from something done permanently to the plate, monoprints. Monotypes are prints made in a similar fashion, but the image is not permanent to the plate, and therefore a one off. There are many other methods of artistic printmaking using various types of print plates and materials - screen-printing, gel plates (commercial and home-made), etching, trace monotypes, etc.

(*) This is a TikTok video. You should be able to view it on any computer browser without having to sign up for an account. Viewing on your mobile device may require an app download.


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