1. Prints, unlike paintings or drawings, generally exist in multiple examples. They are created by drawing a composition not directly on paper but on another surface, called a matrix, and then, by various techniques, printing that image on paper. Those techniques may involve one or another kind of printing press and ink, or the image may be transferred by pressing the paper by hand onto the inked surface of the paper and rubbing. Multiple “impressions” are made by printing new pieces of paper from the matrix in the same way. The total number of impressions an artist decides to make for any one image is called an edition. In modern times each impression in an edition is signed and numbered by the artist, but this is a relatively recent practice. PRINTMAKING!

2. Printmaking Vocabulary & Examples Dice Prints by Bryan Christopher Baker

3. Components of Printmaking

4. Fun Fact: Matrix is from the Latin word mater, meaning mother. Block/Matrix

5. Paper

6. BASIC PRINTMAKING TERMS

7. Artist Proof or AP is your practice print. You are testing your plate.

8. 6 prints in the edition Labeling an Edition of Six: 1/6 2/6 3/6 4/6 5/6 6/6

9. Brayer: A small hand roller typically used in printmaking techniques to spread ink such as inking blocks for relief printing. Barren: A flat tool used to hand print relief matrices such as linoleum, Styrofoam, or foam.

10. Gouge: In relief printing, a tool used for clearing non-image areas from a block of wood or linoleum. Burin: An engraver's tool with a steel shaft and a sharp, oblique point at one end and handle at the other. A burin cuts into a metal plate by being pushed forward rather than being drawn toward the artist.

11. Tarlatan: Starched cotton gauze used by print-makers for wiping intaglio plates. (in class we will be using paper towel as a tarlatan if needed. The tarlatan is useful for blending in ink and getting ink into deep crevasses).

12. Printing Press: A device used by a fine art printmaker to produce prints one copy at a time. It applies pressure between a sheet of paper and an inked printing plate. Presses for intaglio printing apply considerable pressure as they force the paper and plate between.

13. Printmaking Techniques Monoprint/Monotype: As their names imply, monotypes and monoprints (the words are often used interchangeably but shouldn’t be) are prints that have an edition of one, though sometimes a second, weaker impression can be taken from the matrix.

14. Monotype: is made by drawing a design in printing ink on any smooth surface, then covering that matrix with a sheet of paper and passing it through a press. The resulting image will be an exact reverse of the original drawing, but relatively flatter because of the pressure of the press.

15. Monoprint: is made by taking an already etched and inked plate and adding to the composition by manipulating additional ink on the surface of the plate. This produces an impression different in appearance from a conventionally printed impression from the same plate. Since it is virtually impossible to manipulate the additional ink twice the same way, every monoprint impression will be different from every other one.

16. Relief Print: A means of making prints by creating a raised design on a flat surface. The design is inked or covered with color and stamped on paper or another surface.