Thursday 1 September 2011

"Grafiikka" - printmaking: lithography

Lithography is sort of opposite to etching and that stuff. You start with a smooth stone or metal, on which you draw the image with something greasy, and then etch everything that hasn't been drawn onto, and when you ink the stone, the ink will stuck on greasy bits, and not in the etched areas.


Edward Munch

 Maurice Sendak

Eileen Mayo


Interesting part of this is, that when color lithography was invented in mid 19th century, they printed all the postcards, posters, ads and paper things, like masks and paperdolls with this method. 
Mucha posters are lithographs. Just so that you know ;-)
Also the grand illustrated fairytale books that were one of the greatest inventions of the Victorian era :-D
(not really, but - I do adore Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham and the others...)


Also, the modern printing technique is in all practicality just another form of lithography. Even though you use photography and computers to produce the "stone" of flexible metal, and bend it into a cylinder for pressing, it's still the same idea...

No comments:

Post a Comment