Graphic Design and Printmaking: Engraving, Linocut, Stamping
Printmaking questions test whether you understand the matrix: what is cut away, what holds ink, and how the image reaches the paper. Vocabulary (matriz, tórculo, prueba de estado, tirada) and edition conventions carry marks.
The three families
- Relief (linocut, woodcut): cut away everything that must stay white; the raised surface takes ink from a roller. Tools: gubias in V and U profiles, cuchilla. Print by hand with a baren or spoon, or on a press.
- Intaglio (drypoint, etching, aquatint, buril): the image sits in grooves. Ink is forced in, the surface wiped, damp paper and high pressure in the tórculo pull it out. Drypoint uses the burr for velvety line; etching uses acid through a ground; aquatint gives tonal areas.
- Planographic and stencil: lithography works on oil/water repulsion; serigrafía pushes ink through a mesh. Stamping repeats one carved module, relying on registration marks for alignment.
Conventions to state accurately
- The matrix must be drawn reversed, because printing mirrors the image; lettering is the classic failure.
- Number the edition in pencil, bottom left, as a fraction (3/20); title centre, signature and date bottom right. Identical impressions count as one edition; artist's proofs are marked P/A or E/A.
- A prueba de estado is a trial pull before the final edition.
Worked example
A two-colour reduction linocut. Draw the design reversed on tracing paper and transfer it. Cut only what stays white, roll light ink, print the full run of ten on registration-marked paper. Then cut away everything that must remain light and print the dark plate over the same sheets using the corner marks. Reasoning: the block is destroyed progressively, so the run must be complete and consistent before the second cut.
Marks-losing traps
- Forgetting reversal, so text and asymmetric shapes print mirrored.
- Over-inking, which fills the cut lines and destroys the whites.
- Printing intaglio on dry paper, giving weak, grey transfers.
- Numbering inconsistently or printing a larger edition than declared.
- Cutting towards the hand instead of away from it.