Printing Processes

Printing Processes

Relief Printing

Ink is applied to the surface, but not on any sunken areas on a plate or block. You may also chip away parts of the block/plate that you would like to be white instead of black.

Steps to making a Wood Cut Relief Painting:
• Tone/stain Wood block
• Transfer image to wood
• Choose white line or black line
• Depending on what you chose, carve out the spots or lines you want to be white

Intaglio Printing

Scratching or moving metal on a plate. Many different tools may be used to create different textures on the plate. 

Steps to making an Intaglio Printing:
• Carve your design into a plate
• Paint ink over the entirety of the plate
• Use lengths of Scrim to twist on the ink and make a thin texture
• Clear area off around the subject of the drawing
• Soak special printing paper in water for a small amount of time
• The image can now be printed on the paper.

Lithography Printing

A printing process that resolves around grease and water resisting each other. Drawn with grease on a stone.

Steps to making a Lithography Printing:

• Grain down your stone

• Draw on the stone using any greasy material, such as a lithographic crayon

• Chemically treat the stone with Gum Arabic, Rosin, and Talc

• Wash out the stone and drawing

• The stone is now ready to be printed




I would be interested in making an Intaglio print, because it sounds like an exciting profess plus I think the outcome of the design looks nice. I believe these printing processes have influenced designers to design prints based on how the printing processes produce the images.