Art Terminology - Prints

Terminology can get tricky. But once you start, you’ll realise that it’s an ally when navigating the art market!

Terminology can get tricky. But once you start, you’ll realise that it’s an ally when navigating the art market! Let’s talk about prints - when talking about prints some immediately think of a poster of an original. Something that you’d maybe see in a teens room. And, that’s such a small area of printing. A print can hold the marks and indentations that any medium of original art can. It's just a different process and sometimes you can make more than one!

LIMITED Edition- A limited edition print, is exactly that, limited to a certain number. There will be no more produced over the number stated. You can normally find the quantity and specific limited edition number in the bottom corner of an artwork. 

OPEN Edition - This relates to prints which have no limitation on the number that can be printed. For example most prints that are found in gift shops, posters or mass printed material will be open editioned. 

Hand Embellished Print - A hand embellished print maybe tinted or added to in some way in post production by hand. Certain effects can be produced by adding gels, varnishes or pigments.

Woodcut - Woodcutting is a relief process by which the artist carves into wood to create text and imagery; due to the labour needed to create these woodcuts they were not common until the 15th century.

Linocut - Linocuts are also a relief process where linoleum is the material that is carved into to create an image.

Screen print - Is a printing process whereby you transfer ink onto an under layer through mesh. An image can be created on the mesh by making parts of it  nonpermiable to the ink that is used. This is now the blocking stencil that you can now create multiples of.

Lithography - is a printing process by which  a prepared stone is the flat surface for an implement with oil substance to draw upon. A water based liquid is then used over the top of the oil marks on the stone, repelling this is the oil which creates a stencil when printing.

Engraving - Engraving is the oldest intaglio printing process and to create an image from engraving one must make marks and incisions into a plate.  You must then cover the surface of the stone with ink before wiping away the excess. The plate that has been worked on is then put into a printing press making the marks from the plate visible on the paper.

Monoprint/Monotype - Monoprinting is a planographic type of printmaking where you can create singular unique prints each time. This can be created by a multitude of materials such as: oil paint or printing ink on glass or metal.

Collagraph - A collagraph is a combination of relief and intaglio print. It is created using a plate that you would collage to create texture (no printing presses here!) by using pva to marry the textures to the plate before inking and printing.

Etching - Etching is an intaglio type of printmaking whereby the maker coats a metal plate  (usually copper)  with an acid resistant substance- creating the etching ground,  before using a sharp implement with acid to create a design on the metal plate- which is the process of biting. 

Drypoint etching- A similar technique to etching but without use of chemicals. A dry point implement is used to etch into a softer metal, usually copper, to create an image. Ink is then applied to the copper plate, then wiped away leaving ink in the etched recessed drawing only.

Aquatint- Aquatint is similar to that of etching, both are Intaglio printmaking style. However, aquatint is focussed more on shape than the linear and mimics the style of watercolour which informs the term aquatint.

We are delighted to have a new and exclusive collection of limited edition prints from artist Elizabeth Power. The collection explores domestic landscapes throughout the period of 2020. With a heightened colour pallet and slight Fauvism style, Power transforms the British coast into exotic destinations. 

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