Original Fine Art Prints Tips
Read these 22 Original Fine Art Prints Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Framed Art tips and hundreds of other topics.
What Is An Original Fine Art Print?
A fine art print is one intended by the artist to be a print. He creates an image by hand on a matrix and it is printed on the best quality acid-free archival paper with a substantial layer of ink. The print is produced by the artist himself or by a professional artisan (master printer) under the supervision of the artist. The edition is limited in size (the total number of prints produced) which is indicated by the edition number, such as 6/25, appearing along with the artist's signature somewhere on the print in pencil. There may be an embossment identifying the press where the edition was produced, and occasionally the printer and the artist may have included their own embossment. Documentation is generally done on fine art print editions. This gives detailed information about the techniques, and materials, and the total number of prints in the edition as well as the number of Artist's, Printer's, and other proofs pulled.
Lithography
Lithography is a process based on the chemical principle that oil and water do not mix. Images are drawn on limestone or metal plates with crayons and inks which contain wax or oil. After treatment with gum arabic, the non-image areas become water-receptive. The stone or plate is wet before each inking with a roller, so the oil-base ink will adhere only to the image areas. Paper is pressed against the surface with a bar or roller press.
Aquatint
To create an aquatint, the artist dusts a plate with a speckling of acid-resistant resin. The plate is placed in acid, which eats a random pattern into the metal where the dust is not present. The artist then etches the desired image into the altered plate, which provides a background with more texture and depth.
Color Lithograph
A work of art done in color made by drawing on fine grained porous limestone or on a zinc plate and applying greasy ink, which will adhere only to the drawn lines. Dampened paper is applied to the stone and is rubbed over with a special press to make the final work.
How Is A Print Produced?
Promotional brochures and magazines typify the most common type of print. The image and text were created in a computer and shot onto photosensitive lithographic plates and printed on an automated high-speed offset press. These presses can often produce as many as 1000 prints per minute in full color. The ink is a very, very thin layer 'offset' from the plate onto a rubber blanket, then to another blanket and then finally transferred to a clay coated paper. The ink intensity is reduced by up to 75% in this process, but retains its brilliance because it is not absorbed into the coated paper. The problem with many prints produced this way is that the thin layer of color can fade with time and the paper is not archival. Most if not all books, magazines, and posters are printed by this method.
Fine Art Prints are generally produced by the Hand-Pulled Direct Transfer Method. The paper is placed on the surface of the matrix and the image is transferred directly to the paper under pressure. All aspects of the imaging, processing, and production are controlled by the artist and the printer. The presses, though modernized, still operate much as they did when they were invented. Directly transferring the hand-applied ink from the artist-generated matrix to beautiful rag paper by trained artisans in limited numbers, creates a work of art which cannot be achieved any other way.
The ink levels of Fine Art Prints are rich, permanent and imbedded in the paper, which is generally 100% cotton rag and archival. Each color, whether applied to a deeply etched copper plate, a hand-drawn lithographic stone, or a finely carved woodblock, is run one at a time and consistently checked against the standard set by the artist. Decisions made at each step of the production to maintain the highest standards of quality add value and grace to the print edition.
Soft Ground
An etching technique in which the plate is covered with a ground that does not completely harden. A sheet of paper is laid over the ground and drawn on with a pencil; when the paper is lifted, the ground sticks to it somewhat unevenly and leaves an exposed line in the plate which looks like a pencil line in the final print. Materials with different textures (fabric, paper, found objects) can also be pressed into the soft ground and lifted off, removing particles of the ground and exposing the plate to the acid so that it will quite accurately reproduce the texture of the material. Distinguished from "hard ground."
Collograph
A print taken from a collage of materials built onto a support board, sealed and inked, and impressed onto the paper, usually by running it through an etching press. A collograph plate may be printed as a relief plate (raised surfaces are inked and printed) or as a intaglio plate (areas below the surface are inked and printed), or as both in different inkings and printings (also called a collage relief print, collage intaglio or cardboard relief).
Mezzotint
A method of engraving in which the artist works from dark to light. The whole plate is first covered with a fine, regular dot pattern made by using a rocking tool called a cradle. This patter holds the ink and prints as a black background. The image is created by burnishing (smoothing) the dot pattern. The smooth surface does not take the ink and therefore appears in the white.
Signed & Numbered
An artist's practice of signing and numbering appears as one number over another, for example, 15/30. This indicates that the print was the 15th print to be signed and that there were 30 prints in all. There is no difference in value between low-numbered and high-numbered prints.
Value
What type of value do original limited edition prints have. Many will have retain their value in the future... but which ones they are... your guess is as good as mine when it comes to contemporary works.
If you want to buy works with the idea of 'making money'... then you will need to look at works by artists who have stood the test of time. Look at works by artist who were/are considered masters of their time and who worked in one or more of the limited edition mediums.
In the end though... try to buy works that you will enjoy owning and looking at!
Photogravure
Invented in the 1850's, photogravure is a process in which a plate is coated with a light-sensitive ground. The plate is then exposed to light, which transfers the image onto the ground, and then immersed in acid. Where the ground is exposed, the acid etches the image into the plate, creating an image that is almost photographic in appearance.
Monotype
A one-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either printed by hand or transferred to paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press.
Artist's Proof (A/P)
Ideally, but not necessarily the first prints made. They are created outside of the regular "numbered" edition specifically for the purpose of the artist's approval of the quality of the graphic (AP), or the printer's (PP), prior to the creation of the entire edition, but are identical to the regular "numbered" examples. Occasionally, the proofs are numbered using the same method described above and the quantity is traditionally 10% of the edition size. Originally tehy were reserved for the artist's private collection and used as part of the original artist-publisher agreement. Today, they are usually sold through the publisher. The words artist's proof or the initials A/P may be penciled in at the bottom of the print. Typically, 10% of the edition total is designated as A/P, or in the case of a small edition, five graphics are usually so designated. For complete list of printmaking terms, go to ARTinaClick.com
Screen Printing
Screen printing uses silk or other fabric stretched tightly over a frame. Images are created by blocking parts of the screen with stencils created by hand-drawn or photographic techniques. Ink is forced through the open areas of the screen onto paper or fabric.
Etching
The technique of reproducing a design by coating a metal plate with wax and drawing with a sharp instrument called a stylus through the wax down to the metal. The plate is put in an acid bath, which eats away the incised lines; it is then heated to dissolve the wax and finally inked and printed on paper. The resulting print is called the etching
Relief Prints
Relief or block prints are printed from the inked surface of a block, usually carved wood or linoleum. Any cut-away lines or areas do not print. The ink is transferred to paper by rubbing the back of the sheet with a hand-held baren or by applying pressure with a printing press. Most collagraph plates – collages of objects and sculpture – are printed by relief.
Fine Art Prints vs. Printed Reproductions
Some people are concerned about the term 'original' as it pertains to a multiple like a print. Cast sculptures created from a mold have, for centuries, been considered originals. Fine Art Limited Edition prints are also viewed this manner. Originality has to do with intent and execution. An original print is one that the artist, from conception, intended to produce as a print and did so using the finest materials available. The print is produced only in limited numbers.
When an artist chooses to have an existing original painting or drawing made into a print and editioned, that print is considered a reproduction of the original, and therefore not an original itself. Printed reproductions are generally run in large editions for a mass market. When you see the term Limited Edition applied to editions numbering 500 to 1000 and above, the term 'limited' has certainly been stretched, and you can be assured the print was produced on a high-speed offset press. A Fine Art Limited Edition generally numbers between 10 and 200, and is produced by hand on flatbed presses. For a complete list of printmaking terms, go to ARTinaClick.com
Intaglio Prints
Intaglio prints are printed from below the surface of incised or etched metal plates. Drypoint lines are scratched into the plate, while engraved lines are cut with a sharp burin. Mezzotint plates are roughened to print completely black except where burnished smooth. Etchings are made by drawing with a needle through the protective ground on a metal plate; when the plate is put into acid, the exposed metal is eaten away. An aquatint ground does not completely protect the plate from acid; when printed, the light and dark areas look like washes. For all intaglio prints, the recessed areas of the plate are filled with ink and the surface is wiped clean. The paper is dampened so that the printing press will force it into the depressions to pick up the ink.
Wood Engraving
A relief print made from an image cut in an end block of wood (a cross-section of a tree). The artist cuts the design into the wood, so that the background portion of the image is what's inked and pressed onto the paper. Wood engravings generally are characterized as "white line on black" images. They can have much finer lines and details than can woodcuts or linocuts. The same tools are used in wood engraving as in other types of engraving.
Drypoint
This is an engraving method in which the artist uses a sharp metal tool to cut directly into the plate. But unlike etching or engraving, which leaves a smooth line, drypoint leaves furrows of metal burr on either side of the cut. Although the plate is hard to wipe and cannot withstand many printings because of the burr lines, the resulting image is soft and blurred.
Lithotint
A lithographic technique in which lithographic ink is diluted with varying amounts of water before it is painted onto the stone or plate to create the image. Undiluted, the oily ink saturates the stone, which would then print with a solid color; instead, lithotint washes do not fill the stone's pores and look very much like watercolor in the final print, even having a darker rim along the edges of the brushstroke.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Jennifer Mathes, Ph.D. |
