In the past when great artists such as Durer and Rembrandt
were working, the prints were unnumbered. In fact, it is
only a modern convention to limit the edition, thus creating
an increasing demand for the limited number and making
them more desirable as an investment.
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Some say lithographs should not be
done for laughs.
But that wasn't the way in Daumier's day. |
In the modern era the artist makes his own prints rather
than handing the plates over to a printer as
Rembrandt would have done. Whereas the printer had to follow
the artist's instructions, the contemporary artist/printmaker
can allow the creativity to continue into the process of
mixing inks and applying different colours to the plate
so that each piece is individual.
This is especially so when the artist applies the coloured
ink locally to the plate. The process has more in common
with painting than the traditional process which was limited
by the scope the artist could allow the printer. That is
why the range of colours in the
traditional methods is more restricted. All the work in
edinburghetchings.com has been uniquely produced by the
artists.
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Lino cuts must be produced by
making ruts in the right floor-covering stuff.
For these prints, fitted carpets, kelims and durries
are all duff. |
The cartoons on this page and the 'What
is an etching?' page are a more poetic description penned
by Robert Crozier, a fellow printmaker, at the Workshop
which incidentally is a converted washhouse:
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The woodcuts of the Japanese
treat economically, flowers and birds and bees, but
their couples in registration leave nothing to the imagination. |
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| Artists making screen prints in long
editioning stints, need the reach of a gibbon and to
always keep a bib on. |
An
original print is the printed impression produced from a block,
plate, stone or screen on which the artist who conceived the
idea has worked. Because the artist has chosen to render the
idea in "print", it is possible to produce a number
of almost identical images, each one an original work by the
artist. After the total number of prints in the edition has
been "pulled", the blocks, plates, stones or screens
are defaced so that no further impressions can be taken.