UNIT 18: Print-Based Media LO1

Hand Printing
Stencil Printing - A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or
metal, with letters or a design cut from it, these are used to produce letters or
a design on an underlying surface by applying colour through the cut-out
holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused
and quickly produce the same letters or design. The disadvantages of printing
are that it can become extremely tedious and repetitive. Stencil Printing is
used for many types of art work and can also be the design on a postcard etc.
The most famous artist to use this trait in our country in is Banksy who is
famous for his graffiti work. Stencil printmaking is easy enough to pick up as
you get older and produce more art work, so no skills are needed in particular.
This technique is genuinely cheaper than many other printing techniques
because you go anywhere and buy stencils. The equipment used is fairly
basic and easy to use so there for is should be a cheap process. Speed of
process is great as you can repeat the same design again and again.
Linocutting - A Linocut is a printmaking technique, off-cuts of wood are used
so a sheet of linoleum is used for the surface. A design is cut into the linoleum
surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the higher areas
representing a mirror image of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet
is inked with a roller, and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The
Advantages of linocutting is that the outcome of your work will look fantastic
and clean, the disadvantages is that its a hard skill to master and you have to
be extremely delicate. Linocuts are used for mostly individual artwork and
projects. This techniques is used by English artist Cyril Edward Power who
produced many great pieces of work. You need to have high skill and high
knowledge to be able to use this technique as it is quite rare. The cost will be
fairly expensive to due to the wood and the amount of equipment needed.
Speed of process is extremely slow as you have to chisel your pattern from
blank wood.



Mechanical Printing Techniques
Screen printing - is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an
ink-blocking stencil to receive an image. The attached stencil forms open
areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be
pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image. Basically, it is the
process of using a stencil to apply ink onto a substrate. The advantages are it
can be quickly done and repeated, the disadvantages are it can become quite
messy and complicated. It can be for t-shirts, posters, stickers, vinyl, wood, or
other material. A fomous artist used this technique called Brokan Fingerz
who has created many street paintings. Not to much skill or knowledge is
neede its just the case of how quickly you pick it up. The equipment is
expensive as usually this many be done on a machine. Its an extremely
repetitive techniques so Is easy to make t-shirts in bulk.
Letterpressing - Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a
printing press. A worker composes and locks movable type into the bed of a
press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type
which creates an impression on the paper. The advantages of this technique
is it can produce high quality written work, the disadvantages is that its
extremely tedious and this technique is a very gifted and is only used by a few
people as its a craftsmans skill. Its used mostly for old fashioned books and
also bibles. Johannes Guttenberg is one of the most famous to use it as well
as make the first letterpress in 1439. A high amount of skill and training will be
needed to use this technique although nowadays there are digital
letterpresses, this is an expensive technique due to the amount of heavy duty
equipment and the time spent making the equipment. The speed of process is
low as its very time consuming.
Digital Printing Techniques
Photocopying - A photocopier (also known as a copier or copy machine) is a
machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images
quickly and cheaply. A dry process that uses electrostatic charges on a light
sensitive photoreceptor to first attract and then transfer toner particles (a
powder) onto paper in the form of an image. The Advantages are its very
simple and you can almost copy anything thats on paper, the disadvantages
are its electric and modern technology so its bound to go wrong at one point.
Photocopies produce a copy of anything on paper so I can practically be used
for anything. No real skill or knowledge is needed as the photocopier takes
you step by step what to do. Photocopiers are expensive to buy and to run
but overall its cheaper. The equipment needed is the copier itself, paper and
ink. Fast speed of process and can be done over and over.
Laser Printing - Laser printing is a digital printing process that rapidly
produces high quality text and graphics by passing a laser beam over a
charged drum to define a differentially charged image. The drum then
selectively collects charged toner and transfers the image to paper, which is
then heated to permanently fix the image. The advantages are huge as you
can pretty much create anything. The disadvantages are it uses a lot of power
and is expensive to run. These laserprinters can give you high quality
photographs on card and had a laminated top. No real skill or knowledge is
needed for this process. The machine its self will be expensive so will the
electricity bill but its fair cheap to run. Very fast speed of process and you can
repeatedly print pictures.
Step-by-Step guides
Screen Print/ Letterpress: Step 1) Draw the outline of the image you wish to print.

Step 2) Using a craft knife cut out the image. You want to keep the outline of the
image and any infill pieces.

Step 3) Stuff the garment with a sheet of newspaper to stop ink reaching the rear of
the garment.
Step 4) Position your stencil where you
want the image to be, remembering to position any infill pieces.

Step 5) Lay your taped screen onto the stencil. Check there are no gaps around the
outside of your stencil. If there are add an extra layer of tape.
Step 6) Put a thick bead of ink along the
top edge of your screen.

Step 7) Flood your screen with ink by pulling the squeegee across it lightly at a 45
angle. Then repeat with a little force, when you have printed correctly there should
be no ink on top of the mesh and the noise of the squeegee pull should sound a bit
like a zip!

Step 8) Lift the screen from your garment by pressing on one side and lifting the
other (a bit like opening a book). Leave the garment to dry and then iron to fix.






Linocut -
Reduction method is a printmaking technique when a multicolored print is made
with the use of a single block. Through a series of progressive cuttings, inkings, and
printings, the image slowly emerges while the actual block is destroyed. A reduction
print can therefore never be reprinted. The main advantage of reduction method is
perfect registration.

Reduction method can be tricky, but planning ahead makes it much easier. I always
start with a detailed tonal value drawing (preferably in color). Usually, reductions
are printed from light to dark.

Here are step by step images of my recent 5-colors linocut "Breaking Waves".
Carved from unmounted Golden-Cut linoleum. The image size 8"x12". Printed on
Rising Stonehenge paper with Daniel Smith oil based printing ink.

1.



The drawing was transfered to the linoleum block. I started with carving away all
areas that shall remain white in the final print (white clouds and foam). The plate
was printed in pale yellowish green ink.
Tip: When printing a linocut with more than one layer of inks, I remove extra ink
from paper by pressing a clean sheet of plain paper against a freshly printed image.
It illuminates unwanted shine and improves the coverage of subsequent layers.

2.



After the first layer of ink dried, I carved the plate some more and removed the
areas that had to be left in the pale yellowish green (parts of the sky and waves). At
this state, the plate was printed in teal color.

3.



Then the plate was carved some more. Everything that need to be left in teal color
(dark clouds and most of the ocean surface) is cut away. Then the plate was printed
in light blue.

4.



Everything that had to be left light blue is cut away (rocks on the foreground and
background). Then the plate was printed in muted violet ink.

5.



Finaly, I carved away everything that had to be left dull violet. The plate was printed
in dark blue. The print is completed. Since the paper has already accepted five
layers of inks, it usually takes the last layer much longer to dry. Breaking Waves
linocut is a part of Earth and Sea series.