Printmaking

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Prints have become a misunderstood and mistrusted art form recently due to the confusion over reproductions and original prints. Reproductions are mechanically produced pictures of an original artwork, usually a watercolour painting. They can be signed and numbered, as original prints are, but invariably with a much larger number (250 - 1000 or more) in the edition. There is nothing wrong with reproducing an artwork, but signing and numbering and calling them “fine art prints” or “limited edition prints” and selling them as art is misleading.

Original prints come in many different forms - lithographs, silkscreens, engravings, woodblocks and etchings to name a few. The idea for an image may be worked out in a preliminary sketch, but the final image is created directly on the plate (or stone or screen....).

I do etchings and, as with all original prints, there is no “original” that is copied. An etching looks like an etching because of the lines bitten into the plate, the emboss of the plate and the raised ink on the paper. Each technique has its own characteristics unique to that medium; whereas a reproduction looks like another medium - usually a watercolour or an oil painting.

Original prints are considered original because, as they are handmade, no two are exactly alike.

Do your homework before investing in a print and know what you are buying.

Making an Etching

Etchings are done on a copper plate which is first covered with a waxy acid resistant ground. I draw through the ground with an etching needle, exposing the plate where I've drawn. The plate is then submerged in acid and the acid bites the lines that are drawn. After I take the plate out, I add more lines and return it to the acid, doing this several more times until I have a variety of lines, very deep to very shallow. The deep lines will later print darker and the shallow lines lighter.

Next I clean off the plate and apply ink all over, pushing it into the lines. I then wipe the ink off the plate, removing the surface ink while leaving it in the lines. The plate is put on the press bed, covered with damp paper and rolled through the press. The ink is pushed out of the lines and onto the paper.

I have my first proof! It is a mirror image of the drawing on the plate. I examine it very closely. If necessary, I will go through the whole process again and again, adding more linework until I am completely satisfied with the proof. I add handcolouring to my prints with watercolour and I'll experiment with this on the proofs as I go along.

Once I'm happy with the image I'll do the edition. I do editions of 50 to 60. I'll print them, handcolour them, and then number them in pencil on the bottom left hand corner, with the top number being the individual number and the bottom the total number of prints in the edition.

For a simplified interactive demonstration of etching as well as other printmaking techniques go to: