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Printmaking is an ancient art form. Originated in China around 105 CE, the original method of printing was woodcuts, an example of relief printing. Relief printing is when you carve into a surface to create your image. The places where you carve will not be filled with ink, so they will create the negative space of your image. When you put ink on the surface and press it down to paper, you are able to see your image.

Printmaking spread all over the world, being used to create beautiful textiles in the middle ages. It continued to develop in Europe as artists such as Albrecht Düre continued to perfect the craft. It later spread to Japan, with artists creating unique woodcuts in the 14th and 15th centuries that inspired several famous impressionists. Printmaking is still widely used today, both as a fine art and commercially.

There are many forms of printmaking besides Relief. Intaglio printing is basically the opposite of relief printing. You create divots in a surface and fill those with ink, then press a piece of paper into them, so while the divots are negative space on relief, the divots are positive space in intaglio. Serigraph printing uses a stencil and a screen. The ink is pushed through the screen, covering everything except the part of the paper under the stencil. During Lithograph printing, the stone used with lithograph is drawn on with crayon. The stone is in turn washed with oil and water, and ink is placed upon it. The ink is attracted to the oliy crayon and washes off from the parts covered with water. The stone itself is never carved into. Intaglio, Relief, Serigraph, and Lithograph printing are just some of the many printing methods.

Printmaking is remarkable because, as an art form, it has stood the test of time. It is just as useful as it was in Ancient China, and has changed a lot since then. The most revolutionary thing about printmaking is that it gave people the ability to make almost perfect copies of something quickly and easily. That just wasn’t possible before. In China, it was used to copy scriptures for scholars, making it infinitely easier to study. In the middle ages, it made making textiles much faster and much easier. Printing is all about making art that you can copy, and that’s important. With printing, you can easily commercialize beautiful art and make it accessible to all kinds of people. Furthermore, without printing we wouldn’t have modern day books, newspapers, magazines, or any other forms of literature. It’s how it has helped us progress as a society.

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The image below is an Untitled Woodblock Print by Harry Bliss, Date Unknown.

http://www.flynncenter.org/performances-events/amy-e-tarrant-gallery/2012-3030-anniversary-print-project-detail.html

Description:

This woodcut print depicts Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders from shoulders up. He is in the bottom right corner and is staring out into the distance. In the background on the upper left corner is a house, surrounded by a field.

Analyzation:

The print exhibits the use of contrast by having Sanders appear lighter than the rest of the painting, highlighting him as the subject. The print also uses leading lines, the lines of grass in the field leading to a dark space behind Sanders. It also uses rule of thirds. Vertically, two thirds of the print are occupied by Sanders and the last third is occupied by the background, drawing the eye to both him and the house. Lastly, the print exhibits a frame within a frame, because you can see the outline of the print within the surface it was printed on.

Interpretation:

Since the print is very rough hewn and jagged around the edges, I believe that the artist was trying to convey Sander’s grassroots, pull yourself up by the bootstraps attitude. He believes that we as people have to do the hard work ourselves in order to start a revolution. This is also reflected in the supposed farmland background.

Judgement:

This print is aesthetically pleasing to me for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I can get behind the subject matter,  but that’s not important. I can appreciate the use of lights and darks, as it puts the focus on Sanders as the subject and basically lets everything else just be background. Similarly, the rule of thirds divides up the image evenly between main subject and background. I also think the hard, coarse lines really give it a handmade feel.

Printmaking is important because it allows artist to create artwork in a unique and distinct way. It creates a one of a kind masterpiece with very little materials. Infact, that is what sets Printmaking apart from a lot of other artforms. You do not need much to create it. Printmaking has been around for centuries because it did not need all of the new technology we have today to make a museum worthy piece. You can even use different sets of material to create it. So no matter if you live in a place with lots of wood, or lots of stone, you can create a printmaking masterpiece with those few materials.

Printmaking was invented some time in between 500 BC - 100 AD. The Ancient Egyptians were the first to use printmaking. They would use wood instead of paper to print the artwork. But around the same time the Chinese were doing the exact same thing, but they used stone instead. Not to far behind, the Indians would cut from plank and printed pictures, as well as text until 1300. During the 15th century word finally reached Europe and they also began printmaking. Inspired by the glass windows in churches. As I stated before printmaking survived even until today. We know this because graffiti and stencil are a forms of printmaking.

Printing making is an ancient process of transferring an image from a base using ink or paint. This is used to create multiple images that are, for most part, identical. There are many different styles and techniques for printmaking, and many different material used depending on your chosen process. Some of the most common are: woodcuts, where an image is carved into wood and then transferred to paper or fabric; linocuts, which use linoleum instead of wood; etching, where the artist carves into waxed coat metal and then dips the plate in acid, and Lithography, where the drawing goes on a flat surface with an oil based paint and then coated with a water based liquid.

These many processes have been extremely important in the spread of literacy, art and religion, as well as connectivity. Prints and printing presses enabled the early mass production of books, which made them less expensive and more accessible to the lower class. With more books and writings out, more people were able to learn to read. These was also used to showcase art, which also spread culture and ideas. Prints also enabled the first magazines to be created, which aided in the spread of news and current events. People could learn about what was happening across their state, country, and even continents more rapidly than they could be spoken mouth. These two things were also used as apparatuses for the spread of religion, as religious ideas could be conveyed in a simplified format aided by pictures to a wider audience.

​The above image is a woodcut print titled "Prowling Cat" by Eileen Mayo. (source) This pictures a short hair, solid colored cat "prowling" around in deep grass. It also seems to be passing a leafy plant. As for specifics, the cat has no visible pupils and has its right front paw raised, mid step. However, I notice that most of the movement of this piece is not in the step. Starting from the nose-- as the eye is drawn to the most intense empty space of the print-- the viewer is almost pulled up through the face and into the bend of the grass, guided back down into the back-- as all the grass seems to point in that direction-- and then ushered down the tail. It is rather incredible how Mayo is able to guide the eye around the piece with organic shapes, which does not push us to travel too fast. The tiny flecks of white around the cat's fur to show difference almost require time to for us to see the muscle and build of the feline. this print is extremely well done, as it suggests so much movement, not only in the cat, but in our own eyes. The simplicity of the cat and it's empty eyes also leave the viewer space to interpret what the cat is actually doing. We may wonder, what are its motives? Is it hunting? Or just enjoying a warm day?

Art is a special concept that existed since the early humans. Art is such a broad topic, that there’s so much variety. One particular art style is printmaking. Printmaking is the process of designs by printing them from specially prepared plates or blocks. There are many forms of printmaking like engraving, mezzotint, etching, etc. All of these forms have been revolutionized because printmakings has been around since 400 AD. Printmaking has been around so long that the Mesopotamians used it, they used round cylinder seals for rolling an impress of images onto clay tablets. Printmaking was important because it was originally used to reproduce religious texts.

Printmaking is still used today. I noticed that graffiti is unique printmaking. That’s why I wonder if graffiti artists know that what they are making is printmaking art?  What if more than one type of printmaking was combined together to make a new type of category of printmaking.

(Stephen Alcorn's work)

This is my favorite print because it shows something respectable, a hand shake. It uses both negative and positive space to make a simple but intriguing image.

This artwork is a form of printmaking called linocut created by Pablo Picasso in 1959. This printmaking, it shows two workings that seems to be taking a break from something. In the left corner, you can see a bag of grapes. You can also notice that the landscape are hills. There’s also a lizard there.

The print definitely shows a contrast between the darker colors and the lighter color. You can see the different textures from looking between the sky, land, and people so they don’t blend in fully. There are lines that seems to have a roughness to it as you can see it through the sky and lines that have a softness as you can see that through the land and people.

I think this print is trying to show two hard-working people on a break from harvesting. For the title, it seems they were harvesting grapes. It also might infer that the bag is filled with grapes. The person on the right looks like they’re eating grapes while the person on the left look like they’re just relaxing. Based on the colors in the background, it seems to be evening.

Printmaking is a type of art, which you transfer an image on a paper from a carved wood, metal, stone, or screen. There is different types of printmaking such as relief, intaglio, etc. Printmaking is important to the artist because it isn’t normal art. This art is made by transferring it to make a print. Printmaking apparently started after paper was made in China around AD 105. Printmaking had a its most success in the 18th century in France.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/printmaking/

Lee Stevenson- Night Tide. Lino & Woodcut

This print is interesting to me because this seems like it’d take so much patience. I wonder how long it took. I noticed the detail in this is incredible. I love looking at oceans at night and the way this is done is what it actually looks like, which is a realistic sense portrayed. It’s very well done. The contrast of the dark brown and light blue works well together. The lines are pointing my eyes towards the right upper corner of the art.

Printmaking is was one of the few things that is often overlooked as one of the most revolutionary inventions. The printmaking above is by the artist Sarah Gayle Key , it is a relief print, and it depicts a flower in a true artistic form. This image caught my eye because it shows small details in the flower and shows the variation of the different shades of black. Printmaking was traced to the 1500’s starting in China. Since then it spread all around the world and different types of variation of printmaking were invented. Since the rise of printmaking it had revolutionized the world in many important ways. For one , spreading knowledge through imagery was limited, however after print making was invented images were everywhere and allowed things to travel faster. In the image above you can see that the artist tried to depict the details of a flower. I wonder how she created the different shade variations. The drawing as a whole is very pleasing to me. Without printmaking we would not be where we are now.

Printmaking is important because it lets us recopy images without spending a lot of money and without using a lot of materials. The google definition of printmaking is the activity or occupation of making pictures or designs by printing them from specially prepared plates or blocks. My definition of printmaking is taking a drawing that someone or you made and copying it on a prepared plate or block. Printmaking was discovered in the 15th century. The news of printmaking spread through Buddhism from India to China. Printmaking is so important because you don’t need a lot of resources to printmake. Printmaking is revolutionary because it was one of the first discoveries for copying a picture.

 http://mitchsart.weebly.com/printmaking-inspiration.html

Printmaking is a type of art where someone carves an image, covers it in ink and transfers the image onto a piece of paper. Print making was one of the first means of transporting communication. It was created in ancient Egypt.

Printmaking is the process of transferring an image onto another piece of paper. It is important because it help creates designs for buildings, murals, and other architectures. The invention of printmaking is revolutionary for the same reason, that it started a whole new idea of pictures.

Week 2 - Day 2 - Blog - What is printmaking/Why is printmaking important?

Printmaking is creating art by transferring an image or design by contact with a matrix such as a block, plate, stone, or screen. It is basically the process of making artworks by printing. Printmaking is very important. I say this mainly because printmaking it gives a clear forum for talking about technique. Printing gives a structure to how to create an image and how to talk about creation that kids especially need.  I believe that printmaking is meaningful because printmaking is not just an art form: it's also an important medium for communication because it usually involves multiples. I think of printmakers as the communicators of the art world. This is why I think printmaking is important.

Now let’s talk about the invention of printmaking and why it is so important. Most of us tend to take printed materials for granted, but imagine life today if the printing making  had never been invented. We would not have books, magazines or newspapers. Posters, flyers, pamphlets and mailers would not exist. It is so important that it has come to be known as one of the most important inventions of our time. It drastically changed the way society evolved. Based off of my research, one of the sources stated,” following its invention by Chinese art many centuries previously, fine art printmaking became established during the German Renaissance (1430-1580), during the early period of the Northern Renaissance.” It also stated, “it was not till the 18th century that art prints began to be considered originals and not till the 19th that artists began to produce limited editions and to sign their prints along with the technical information necessary to authenticate the work.” These evidence support the fact that printmaking was revolutionary.

Albrecht Dürer, German Master Printmaker(1470-1528) Knight Death and the Devil, Engraving, 1513, 8" x 10".

This painting shows an armed man sitting on a horse. It looks like the man is going to go fight. The background of this painting looks dark and scary. The man on the horse don’t look happy at all. This painting shows a contrast of light and dark colors. I think that this is a good painting because the artist uses a different style to create the image. This picture has a meaning to it. I wonder if the person on the horse is going to go fight in a war. I notice that this image looks like it is showing something from the past.