While the Academy is well known for painting and sculpture, printmaking is also a vital, if small, aspect of its output. Originals prints - etchings, lithographs - are no less works of art than paintings etc. and the various techniques have been used by many artists (Rembrandt, Goya, Picasso, Freud, etc.) as an important means of exploring and extending their creative ideas through other media.

The resulting images, each of which is an original work, conceived and executed by the artist and should not be confused with the many numbered and signed " prints " also being marketed but which are no more than photomechanical reproductions of another art work. One is art the other is a copy, eg. this can best be illustrated by a series of bronzes produced by a sculptor, each is a separate piece of art and not a copy.

ETCHING

An etching is a print taken from a metal plate, usually copper or zinc into which an image has been "bitten "with acid. The plate is covered with an acid-resisting ground and the artist draws through the resist exposing the metal in the drawn areas. The plate is then immersed in the acid solution, and the acid " bites " into the exposed lines, creating depressions that will hold ink. The artist may employ more complicated methods to create different marks, but always relies on the acid to etch these marks into the plate.

An etching is an " intaglio " print, (from the Italian word meaning to carve or incise. Other kinds of intaglio prints are engravings, drypoints, mezzotints, where the plates are worked manually rather than with an acid.Once inked the surface of the plate is wiped and then printed onto damped paper through an etching press. The pressure forces the damped paper into the inked lines and marks of the plate.

RELIEF PRINTING

Relief prints are most often printed from blocks of wood or linoleum in the form of woodcuts, wood engravings, or linocuts. The non-image areas are cut away to leave the image in relief. Ink is applied to the surface using a roller, paper is laid on the block and the image is transferred to the paper using a press or by burnishing the back of the paper with a barren or wooden spoon.

LITHOGRAPHY

A lithograph is traditionally printed from flat slabs of Bavarian limestone , or more recently from zinc or aluminium plates. The artist draws or paints the image on the stone or plate using a greasy crayon or ink. The image is chemically treated to fix it to the stone or plate. Once damped with a sponge the non-image areas of the surface will reject will reject the ink while the greasy drawn areas attract ink from the roller. The inked image is transferred to paper under greasy pressure using a lithographic press.

SCREENPRINTING

In screen printing a stencil is adhered to fabric that has been tightly stretched over a metal or wooden frame and ink is forced through the open images with a squeegee onto paper

This review of printing was provided by RUA Academician James Allen and RUA Associate Margaret Arthur.