Intro to Printmaking at AAC
Summer camps here at AAC are known for their exploration of popular media like painting, drawing, and sculpture.
However, that doesn’t mean we’re afraid to explore and experiment with techniques that might involve more steps or take a little extra effort.
Our Intro to Printmaking camp with instructor Jennifer Wilkin Penick did just that!
Printmaking is a form of art-making that allows the artist to reproduce a design, drawing, or image multiple times onto various surfaces, though most often paper. This means that prints can come in all different shapes, sizes, designs, and media!
Our campers tackled a number of the techniques covered under the term printmaking. Check out the different techniques they experimented with and their results below.
Techniques
Etching
In order to create a print from an etching, the artist first covers a metal plate (usually copper) with wax, or some other resist, then a design is cut into the plate using small, sharp etching needles. Once the design is complete, the printmaker dips the plate into a chemical bath, which dissolves part of the exposed metal. The design is now permanently etched onto the surface of the plate. The resist is removed, and the plate is inked. Excess ink is removed, so the only areas that are inked are the etched lines. The ink is transferred to paper using a printing press.
To accomplish this somewhat complicated technique in the classroom students used a simple method with a material called scratch foam soft surface printing board with ballpoint pens. First they incised their designs onto the foam boards. Students then applied ink to the entire board, and pressed a piece of paper to the plate to reveal a reverse image of the original etching.
The goal of this lesson was to learn about incising lines, and how to get a variety of effects when printing.
Silkscreen/screenprinting
– A printmaking technique in which images are stenciled or masked onto mesh fabric, and ink is pushed through the fabric onto paper or other media (like more fabric). It often involves chemicals similar to those used in color photo printing, and has become highly commercialized. You might be surprised to know that you see this technique in your every day life. You know that awesome graphic tee you own? Yeah, it was screenprinted.
In camp, students chose or created a design, which they then traced onto a stretched mesh fabric using screen drawing ink. Once the design was dry, the mesh fabric was covered with screen filler.
Handy substances like screen drawing ink and screen filler keep our campers away from the harsh chemicals often used to process screens before printing.
After the image was masked with the screen filler, the drawing ink was washed away to reveal the image that would ultimately end up on the paper. Campers added ink and used a squeegee to push the ink through the screen onto the paper underneath.
The goal of this lesson was to introduce students to this iconic printmaking tradition, learning about its use in pop art and popular culture, in general.
Block printing
One of the oldest types of printmaking woodblock printing has been around since 5,000 BC with its origins dating back to India, China, and Japan. This form of printmaking was originally used with woodblocks, but has been adapted to be used with rubber and linoleum.
To begin, the young printmakers in camp first sketched their design in pencil, which was transferred onto the surface of a rubber block. Students then used tools to carve away the parts of the rubber that they don’t want to show in the final print. They covered the surface with ink, and simply pressed the block onto the medium of choice, paper, fabric, another piece of wood. It’s one of the most direct methods to use when learning and teaching the process of printmaking.
The goal of this lesson was to learn about the tradition of relief carving, and how it lends itself to the transfer of very fine lines in a sharp, clear fashion.
Monoprinting
Monoprinting is a method of printmaking that challenges everything we know about printmaking! Masking and stenciling is used in this technique, but instead of multiples or reproductions, you can only make ONE monoprint, and the ink actually goes on before the design. To do this in the classroom, AAC campers utilized the gelatin plate printing method.
Instructor Jennifer Wilkin Penick made a set of gelatin plates for the student to use as the base. The campers created or found stencils to use, and prepared the plates for printing.
Stencil were placed over the inked portion of gelatin to mask out the image and create negative space in the composition. Then, campers put paper over the surface and pressed down firmly and evenly across the back of the paper – this helps the paper pick up the ink. Slowly and carefully they peeled back the paper from the gelatin.
