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Pulling the Print |
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Relief & Intaglio |
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In pulling a print, the artist uses pressure to transfer ink from a prepared surface (the matrix) to another surface (usually a piece of paper.) Each printmaking technique is characterized by a different way of creating the matrix and pulling the print.
The various materials used in relief printmaking contribute to the characteristic look of each medium. In woodcut, the matrix is plank wood (wood cut along the length of the tree trunk, the way we normally see lengths of wood in a lumber yard). In cutting into the plank, the artist is always forced to consider the grain; working with, against, or across the grain of the wood often yields an angular mark characteristic of woodcut. Linoleum, by contrast, has no grain, and as a result the artist can more easily carve out a mark which is fluid and supple. In wood engraving, the matrix is end-grain wood; the wood is cut in cross-sections across the tree trunk and pieced together where necessary. The most prized material for wood-engraving – end-grain boxwood – is increasingly rare and expensive, and wood-engravings frequently use end-grain maple or even plastic. As with linoleum, the artist working with end-grain wood is not constrained by the direction of the grain. In addition, wood engravers employ a different set of tools – gravers, spitstickers and scorpers – each of which creates a distinctive mark. Color woodcuts are created in a variety of ways. The artist can create multiple blocks, ink each with a different color, and print them in succession, one on top of another. The complex process by which each color is precisely superimposed over the previous color is called registration. An artist can also cut the block into pieces, ink each with a separate color, and then re-assemble and print the block. Reduction woodcut is an exacting process in which the artist uses only one block. The block is cut and used to print the first color; that same block is cut down (hence the term reduction woodcut) and used to print the second color over the first. The artist continues to cut and print until all the colors have been printed. There is, however, no opportunity to go back to the first color, since the wood has long since been cut away. (For obvious reasons this medium has been called the Russian roulette of printmaking.) Artists also add color by hand. White-line woodcut is a process where the artist cuts a line to separate each area of color, applies the colors by hand, and then pulls the print.
The matrix in intaglio is a thin plate of metal (usually zinc or copper), plexiglass, or any other surface in which a line can be engraved. Each intaglio process uses a different method of creating permanent marks on the plate. In the traditional etching method, the artist first covers the plate with a protective ground, next draws through the ground, and finally immerses the plate in a mordant, such as an acid or ferric chloride. The mordant eats into the metal wherever it is exposed, creating lines and marks that correspond to the lines drawn through the ground. There are also a number of new products available which enable the artist to create an etched line without the use of a mordant. Aquatint also uses a mordant but creates a broad tonal area. The artist covers the plate with a fine dusting of spray paint or a sprinkling of rosin dust melted onto the plate. When the plate is immersed in the mordant, the mordant bites around the paint or rosin particles, creating a tone instead of a line. In the case of line or aquatint, the longer a plate is left in the mordant, the deeper the bitten area and the darker the line or tone in the printed image. It is also possible to etch a photographic image – either a negative or a positive – onto the plate. This is called photo-etching. Drypoint, as the name implies, creates lines without the use of a mordant. The artist draws directly into the plate, creating a shallow line with a ridge of metal or plexiglass on one side. This ridge, called the burr, is the metal or plexi that is displaced as the line is drawn (similar to the furrow of soil thrown up by a plow.) The ragged surface of the burr catches more ink than the shallow line beside it; indeed the burr prints a velvety dark line which is the characteristic beauty of drypoint. But because the burr is fragile and wears away after only a few passes through the etching press, the number of prints in a drypoint edition is usually very small. In mezzotint, the artist uses a tool called a rocker to laboriously cover the entire surface of the plate with pits. If a print were pulled at this point, it would be almost solid black. To create an image, the artist uses a burnisher to smooth the rough metal down into lines and areas that will not catch ink. In other words, the mezzotint artist is creating a white image on a dark ground. Metal engraving is another intaglio process that uses no mordant. The artist uses a tool called a burin to remove lines of metal from the plate. The line created by the burin is the most clear and clean of the intaglio lines. The etched line, bitten by the mordant, is slightly more ragged, and the drypoint burr line is the richest and most expressive of all. Color intaglio prints are usually created with multiple plates, in much the same way as multiple blocks are used to create color woodcuts. It is also possible to add color by hand (or, more accurately, by finger) to selected areas of a plate before it is printed. This technique is called à la poupée. |
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