Introduction to relief printmaking
About this video
Relief printmaking, the first print process, began with seals in China around 255 B.C. and works like a stamp: the image area is raised and the non-image area is carved away. Linoleum later gave artists a new material, and because no press is needed, relief printing remains the most accessible form, producing bold blacks, fine lines, abstract or representational images, and text.
You'll be able to
- explain how image and non-image areas work in relief printmaking.
- describe the origins of relief printmaking.
- explain why relief printmaking is so accessible to artists worldwide.
Key words
- relief printmaking
- Printing from a surface where the image is raised and the rest is carved away.
- image area
- The raised part of the block that takes ink and prints.
- non-image area
- The carved-away, lowered part that stays white.
- linocut
- A relief print made by carving linoleum.
- press
- A machine that pushes paper onto an inked block; relief printing doesn't need one.
Transcript
Relief printmaking, the first print process invented had its origins in seals in China around 255 B.C. If you think of relief printmaking as a stamp, which is a very basic transfer of an image from one surface to another. That is the initial concept of relief printmaking.
The image area is raised, whereas the non-image area is lowered. So if you think of a plank of wood and you carve away the white areas, what is raised would become the image area. One of the modern inventions, linoleum, for what we call a linocut or linoleum cut, provided artists with the opportunity of working on the material in a way that was new and unique.
Relief printmaking, as the earliest form of printmaking, is still the most accessible form of printmaking. Because a press is not required to transfer the image from the block to paper, it allows artists just about anywhere in the world who have access to a small amount of materials, whether they be wood or linoleum, and a small amount of ink, to be able to create an image.
Artists like relief printmaking because it affords them the opportunity to have a very direct low-tech way of working to produce bold graphic images with strong blacks as well as fine detailed lines. Its accessibility allows for a variety of marks and sensibilities, both abstract and representational, both things that involve text as well as images.
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