What Is An Original Arts Print?

The following is an introduction to the process of making original, fine art lithographs and the methods used to care for them. Standards may vary at different workshops.

What is a lithograph? Basically, it is a print made by using a press to transfer an image that was created initially on stone or metal plate to paper.

Aloys Senefelder, preferred to call it chemical printing, since the process depends on the chemical interaction of grease, nitric acid, gum arabic, and water, rather than the stone from which the name lithography is derived.

Although the term can refer to commercially reproduced images, such as those on posters or in magazines, it is the most used process of the printing industry and it is the one processes that most represents the mark as you would normally draw.

What is the difference between a print and a fine art print?

Print is the generic term for an image produced in multiple. There are many different kinds of prints, including reproductions made from an image that already exists.

A truly original print, however, directly involves the artist, who uses the special qualities of the printmaking processºwhether it is etching, engraving, serigraphy (or silk screen), woodcut, mezzotint, or lithography to express his or her ideas.

Some artists print their images themselves. Others work collaboratively with a skilled printer, who discusses ideas and materials with the artist, and carries out all the technical requirements such as processing and printing.

In each case, what distinguishes the print as original is that the artist participated directly in the creation of the image and approves all impressions.

How does a lithograph differ from other fine art prints?

Lithographs differ from etchings, engravings, serigraphs, and woodcuts in materials and process. As opposed to many other print processes which depend upon incised or carved lines, lithography is a planographic process that depends upon the mutual repulsion of grease and water.

For example, etchings and engravings are printed from a metal plate with incised lines while a lithograph is made from a chemically treated, flat surface. A serigraph is a silk-screen print, and woodcuts are printed from blocks of wood carved in relief.

How is a lithograph made? To make a lithograph, the artist first draws an image, in reverse, on a fine-grained limestone or aluminum plate. For a one-color lithograph, this will be the only drawing. Each additional color will generally require a separate stone or plate.

Artists use the same kinds of tools they would for images on paper or canvas. However, since the basic principle of hand lithographic printing is the natural repulsion of grease and water, the crayons, pencils, and washes used in lithography have a high grease content.

At the press, the printer sponges the stone or plate with water, rolls it with ink, and prints a series of trial proofs: the same image with different color and paper combinations. When the artist is completely satisfied with the result, the final proof is signed by the artist as the bon   tirer (good to pull). With this as a standard, the printer is ready to pull the edition.

Once the edition has been printed, the stone or plate is destroyed or erased, ensuring that no more impressions can be printed. The curator checks each impression against the bon tirer, and the prints are embossed with the shop chop (identifying symbol) and the collaborating printerÀs chop. Then the artist signs and numbers the impression.

What does pull an impression mean, and why do you refer to prints as impressions?

To pull a print simply means to print an impression, and impression refers to any one of a number of nearly identical images pulled from the same printing elements.

In a multicolor print, how does the printer get the colors in exactly the right places?

Generally the same piece of paper must pass through the press as many times as there are different colors. This process requires exact registration with each run, or pass, through the press.

Registration ensures that each color or component of an image is printed in exactly the right area. The printer makes tiny pencil marks on each sheet of paper to be printed and lines them up to correspond with marks on each stone or plate. This way, each impression in the edition is consistent.

What is an edition of prints? Edition refers to all impressions of a particular image that are printed after the artist has given an approval to print.

What are artists proofs? Artists proofs (sometimes designated A.P.) are impressions just like those in the numbered edition. They are set aside for the artists personal use. Often the number of artists proofs is limited to a maximum of five or up to ten percent of the signed and numbered impressions.

Who determines how many prints will be made?

Generally the artist and a printshop representative decide together before the edition is printed.

If all the prints in the edition are sold, do you print more?

Never. After the artist signs and numbers each impression in the edition, all stones and plates are effaced. Stones are then resurfaced for future use.