lithography,letterpress

Hand printing techniques used by artists are as follows:

Planographic Printing

Lithography is derived from the Greek word meaning to write on stone. Aloys Senefelder invented lithography in 1798. Unlike the techniques listed below the printed and non-printed areas share the same surface. Lithography works on the principle of grease repelling water and adhering to ink. Thus the materials that the artists uses to make their image with are "greasy" and these are the areas that will pick up the ink from the roller. The rest of the plate or stone surface is covered with a thin film of water, which serves to repel the ink during printing. In this way the drawn area of the print is what is transferred to paper.

Letterpress

is a printing technique that actually embeds the artwork into the paper. The softer the paper is, the deeper the inked plates sink the image into the surface, creating a textured, 3 dimensional design. The technique of letterpress printing began in the mid 1400s with the invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg. For centuries, letterpress was the only method of printing used for reproduction. Letterpress printing is a very labour-intensive process. The press operator handsets and hand inks the metal plates that are used to imprint the designs and lettering onto the paper. The process of letterpress printing is not only extraordinarily time consuming, but also is a tedious craft that requires the utmost attention to detail. Today, after centuries of change and technological advances in printing methods, the processes and craft of letterpress printing have remained virtually unchanged.

or many artists lithography appeals most to them as artists as it is very similar to drawing and painting as one uses pencils and brushes which are prepared specifically for lithography. The artist works directly onto the grained limestone, grained film or aluminium plate. Various abrasives are used in the graining process so that a variety of either smooth or rougher surfaces can be worked on depending on the preferences of the artist concerned.

Each colour used on a lithograph requires a separate plate/film or stone to be used and the artist has to make the colour separations themselves. The complicated technical nature of lithography takes time and knowledge to do effectively and usually requires that the artist collaborates with a skilled masterprinter.