It's #printmakingmonday ! Today we're going to take a general, introduction look at lithography.
Lithography is a planographic printmaking process, meaning that the surface is flat; not in relief like a wood/lino cut, or cut into like intaglio.
The basic principle that lithography is based on is that oil and water don't mix. Lithography can be done on a number of surfaces (stay tuned for those techniques!) but traditionally is done on a smooth, even limestone slab. The stone is drawn on with a variety of different greasy materials. There are lots of different materials available for this process, in upcoming #printmakingmondays we'll see some in detail.
After the stone has been drawn on, it is etched. This is a multi step process which involves mixing different strengths of nitric acid into gum Arabic, which etches the imagery into the stone creating a layer bonded to the stone that will reject water. The non-image areas will not reject water.
After this process is finished, the stone is ready to print. To ink the stone, a large roller is rolled up with greasy ink. Before rolling this onto the stone, the stone is sponged with water; it must stay damp. The water is repelled from the image areas and the oily ink sticks there; in the non-image areas, the water stays and repells the ink.
After the stone is inked, it is ran through a lithographic press with paper. The pressure from the press transfers the ink onto the paper.
The print above is Electrocution, by artist George Bellows, of 1917. It is a great example of the wide range of values that can be created in lithography.
Lithography is a very expressive medium, but stone lithography can be very intensive. The next few weeks of #printmakingmondays will be devoted to this subject. Stay tuned!













