This is quite a different way of working than having work mass produced. A painter may have their work scanned in and digitally reproduced for sale as the artists limited edition print; this process is reproduction. It’s about using modern print processes to copy work.
Printmaking is about using complex printing processes to produce the work.
There are many different ways of printmaking such as etching, plate or stone lithography, screen printing, or relief printing. All the prints on this site are relief prints. This is the process I enjoy using as the vehicle for my ideas.
Relief printing is quite simple, it is just about printing from a raised surface. Take a flat piece of wood, and cut in to it as in the photo above. I lower the surface and so create a surface in relief. What I leave behind or uncut can now be rolled up with ink.
A flat and even layer of ink is rolled out using a roller onto a flat, clean surface called the inking slab.
The ink is then transferred from the slab to the raised surface of the block using the same roller. This is called inking up the block.
A piece of paper is then placed over the block and pressure is applied either by rubbing with a spoon, or putting the block and paper through a hand printing press. The paper is then peeled back; this is called pulling the print. And so a relief print is made.
A selection of different tools and blocks.
A close up of a side grain wood block, some gouges and a knife.
Shown here is a close up of engraving tools, an engraved block and an end grain block with the tree rings visible.
I work in the tradition of woodcut and wood engraving. I usually use printing vinyl, wood, plastic, lino, or vinyl floor tiles to make my blocks. Woodcuts are made from the side grain of a plank of wood, and use gouges and knives, as above. This usually means the images are large and bold in comparison to wood engravings. Wood engravings are made using the end grain, so I cut in to the growth rings of the tree, rather than the side grain. If I use a dense and hard wood, this surface allows me to use engraving tools which make much smaller and finer marks. So a wood engraving tends to be a lot smaller and finer.
Neil Bousfield 2006.