What is Original Printmaking?

At Soma Gallery we are often asked the question "what is an original print?". Put simply, an original print, is a print made by an artist using a plate or matrix which is transfered to another surface (usually paper) using their hand, a press or similar, in an edition of one or more. The intention of the artist is to create a print, not to reproduce an already created piece of art. For example, Giclee reproductions in limited editions of paintings are not original printmaking as they are a copy of an original. In original printmaking, each hand printed edition is the original artwork.

The term original prints is confusing, partly due to the word 'print' being misused frequently, usually when 'reproduction' should have been used. For example, if you are looking at a poster of a painting by Andy Warhol, this is a reproduction, because there is an original painting that the poster has been reproduced from. In original prints, there is no single original because each print is the original artwork as it may come from many plates, or perhaps silkscreens, so there can be no one original (unless it's a monotype, but more on this further down)!

Where do printmakers make their work?

Most printmakers we work with are members of open access print studios or have small home set ups. Professional equipment is expensive, especially etching presses and vacuum beds, even second hand. Maintaining these can be costly as well.

Some artists use master printers to produce their editions. The artist goes to the printer with their idea and they work together to get to a stage where the artist is happy for the printer to complete the edition. Many famous artists have utilised master printers, this is less common now due to cost, but there are several Fine Art studios in the UK including Argento Editions in London and Ink on Paper Press in Wiltshire.

What do edition numbers mean?

The majority of prints we sell are limited edition prints. This means that the artist has produced a strictly limited number, for example 50, for sale and each print in the edition will be numbered as a fraction e.g. 1/50, 2/50 and so on. Each print has the same monetary value as each print should be identical, or very similar depending on the process used, but collectors can often favour particular numbers. Usually there will be test prints and others out of the edition which are marked as a/p or artists proof. Occasionally you may find second editions of popular prints, they are usually different from the original edition as different colours, papers or similar would be used.

Here are some other marks you may see:
A/P or AP artists proof
V/E, VE, E/V, EV variable edition or edition variable
P/P PP printer's proof
BAT bon a tirer, good to pull
T/P TP trial proof
H/C HC hors de commerce, not for sale
O/E OE open edition, unnumbered

Do I need a certificate of authenticity?

No, a signed and numbered limited edition print is proof of provenance. A receipt of sale also proves you have bought it.

What are the different types of printmaking processes?

Screenprint/Silkcreen Print

Screen printing is a process that uses a silkscreen which is a tighly stretched woven mesh on a metal or wood frame, through which ink is pushed through a stencil. The stencils are made by drawing or printing onto clear film and exposing onto the screen using light sensitive emulsion. The artist uses a squeegee to push ink through the screen onto paper. Multiple layers can be used and very intricate designs can be produced.

Artists including Rob Ryan, Tom Frost and Anna Marrow use this process. View all Screen Prints here.

Lino Cut

Lino cutting involves the artist using very sharp tools or scalpels to cut a design into linoleum or vinyl tiles. The lino is then inked up and printed either on a press or by hand with a barren or a wooden spoon. The cut away areas don't print so leave a negative image. Lino is very versatile and a number of presses can be used including Albion and Columbian presses, most etching presses can be used and even letterpresses.

Melanie Wickham is a lino cut artist whose work we stock.

Wood Cut & Wood Engraving

Wood cut and wood engraving are relief printing techniques. Wood cut printmaking involves cutting into side grain wood with very sharp tools, often called gouges. Wood cut can be printed using most relief presses or by hand.

Wood engravings are made by carving into the end grain of a very hard wood such as box, maple or lemonwood and is different to wood cut which uses side grain. Due to the hardness of the material, very fine details can be achieved. This technique was originally used for illustrations in books and newspapers alongside letterpress until metal image blocks arrived. 

View wood engravings at Soma Gallery here.

Risography

Risoprinting or risography is a printing process that combines stencil printing, similar to screen print, with the speed and ease of use of photocopying. Riso printers use large soy based ink drums that print single colours using half tone effects in machines that look similar to photocopiers. The inks are bright and fluorescent but don't have the longevity of screen print ink or traditional printmaking inks, they also take a long time to dry.

The imperfect nature and 'out-of-register' printing is an attractive quirk of this printing process, though a skilled operator can avoid the mis-registration - so be warned if this is what you are after! Large editions can be printed fairly quickly and affordably in these machines and they are particularly suited to zines, greeting cards and cheap poster prints or mini prints. 

Soma artists who use risography are Peski Studio, Adam Bridgland and Lucy Gough. View all risograph prints at Soma Gallery here.

Etching/Drypoint/Intaglio

Etching is an intaglio printmaking process where lines are drawn into a metal plate through a resist ground and then incised with acid to etch into the metal. Drypoint techniques avoid the acid and resist and the lines are drawn straight into metal or plastic. Aquatint is a technique using rosin to create tonal areas and can be combined with sugarlift. Ink is applied to the plate and wiped away gently, the ink remaining in the grooves or textured areas is then printed onto dampened paper through an etching press.

Fiona Hamilton uses etching techniques.

Chine Collé

Chine collé is a printmaking process where tissue paper is used alongside etchings to add colour and texture to the image. Chine collé can be used in most printmaking processes but is most often used in etching or planographic processes.

Monotype/Monoprint

A monotype is a unique one off print. Usually a monotype is made by creating an oil based drawing or painting on a piece of metal or plastic and printing it through a press onto a piece of paper. Monotypes can be made in a similar way by painting water based ink on a silkscreen and pulling a single print from it. At this point the plate cannot be printed from again as the ink has been exhausted. Occasionally, 'ghost prints' can be pulled, which are faint prints using the leftover ink.

Not to be confused with monotype which is a true one-off, a monoprint may come from an edition with similar elements, even though each print is unique. For example, an etching plate may be used but each plate may be wiped differently and a different colour used each time. Fiona Hamilton's Jackdaw etchings are monoprints as they use the same etching plate.

Lithography

Lithography is a planographic printmaking process based on the immiscibility of oil and water. In it's traditional form, a greasy image is drawn onto a limestone slab and a mix of acid and gum arabic makes the stone hydrophillic (water loving) which aids the inking process. This allows for very detailed prints. Plate lithography uses zinc or aluminium plates which are ball grained and processed in a similar way to the stone. Traditional print studios generally use offset proofing presses from the 50s-70s, which transfer the image to a roller, then to the printing paper, alongside older stone litho presses which are direct presses that use a scraper bar to transfer the image to the paper.

More modern techniques use photo lithography processes which can be printed by hand using an etching press. Kitchen lithography is a recent invention and uses the acid and gum arabic in cola to process aluminium kitchen foil. It works surprisingly well!

To confuse things: Offset litho posters or lithographic posters are produced in large runs using very modern lithographic processes. We are phasing out selling these as it is a bit confusing now we sell more traditional lithography. These are printed in the CMYK process using standard inks, rather than high quality Fine Art oil based inks.

View all traditional lithography at Soma Gallery.

Letterpress

Letterpress is a relief printmaking process and uses metal or wooden type, inked up and pressed to paper. Letterpress is one of the oldest printmaking processes and has always been very popular at Soma Gallery. Letterpress is a flexible process, encompassing a number of techniques and can be used to create plates in all sorts of designs in several different material types. Metal and polymer plates can be made to create text and imagery, you don't need to spend hours or days setting type if you don't want to! Wood engraving is often paired with letterpress. 

Seb Lester uses die embossing letterpress techniques, while Spencer Wilson prints his designs from metal letterpress plates.

View all letterpress prints and artwork at Soma Gallery.

Giclée/Digital Print

Giclée printing is a high quality digital print using pigment ink. The word giclée is derived from the French word 'gicler' meaning 'to squirt' or 'to spray'. The high quality inks are printed using specialised printers and the pigment inks have excellent colour matching, are fade resistant and are printed at an extremely high resolution onto pH neutral paper.

Giclée prints are quite a complicated area so I've left them until last. There are two types of giclee/digital prints: 1. A reproduction of an original artwork, usually a painting, often called a Fine Art Giclée and NOT an original print (because it's a reproduction); 2. An artwork made on a computer by an artist and printed as a signed and numbered, strictly limited edition print.

We do not sell the first type of giclée print, the reproduction of a painting or artwork. 

We do sell giclée prints and digital prints by our artists although we don't have many as our focus is hand-made printmaking. High quality digital printmaking is excellent and we have had some wonderful work over the years. Where digital printing excels, is where hand printing can't. For example Graham Carter and Sam Chivers use digital to create luminous  colours and gradients that look almost neon. Both are master screen printers so if they were able to produce these using screen print, they would. Sam has pushed the process as far as possible using blends, but settled with digital when screen print can't go where he wants to. We currently don't have any digital work from Sam, but we do have some fantastic pieces from Graham Carter.

View all digital and Giclée prints at Soma Gallery.

At Soma we are multi-disciplinary printmakers, so if you have any questions, do feel free to send over a message with any queries and we'll do our best to answer them.