The printmaking guides are free for anyone to help them learn the art of traditional printing. Printmaking methods covered in these guides have been used both by artists and businesses over hundreds of years.
In modern day printing many of these methods are not used anymore, they are a dying skill with advanced digital printing taking the lead for commercial printing. There are many artists who still practice traditional printmaking, it is kind of like a dark art that only a few people know.
4 Main Categories Of Traditional Printmaking:
- Relief Printing – Material such as lino or wood has the negative space of your design carved into it, then ink is rolled onto the carved/raised surface and then printed.
- Intaglio Printing – This is the opposite of relief printing, using methods such as etching the design that is drawn is what gets printed.
- Planographic Printing – This involves printing from a flat surface that is not carved or etched, printing methods like lithography are a form of planographic printing.
- Stencil Printing – This involves creating a mask that prints your design with the negative areas blocked out, methods such as screen printing use this.
The beauty of printmaking is that you can produce multiple copies of the same artwork and each print can be different by applying a variety of methods or edits before going under the press.