Engraving, Etching, and Woodcut

Engraving refers to a printing technique in which an intaglio image is produced by cutting a metal plate or box directly with a sharp engraving tool. The incised lines are inked and printed with heavy pressure.

Peace Brother

Etching is a printing technique in which a metal plate is first covered with an acid-resistant material, then worked with an etching needle to create an intaglio image. The exposed metal is eaten away in an acid bath, creating depressed lines that are later inked for printing. This technique was thought to have been developed by Daniel Hopfer (1493-1536). Etching surpassed engraving as the most popular graphic art during the active years of Rembrandt and Hercules Segher in the 17th century, and it remains one of the most versatile and subtle printing techniques today.

Cathedral Etching Plate

Sunken Cathedral

Woodcut can be described as a printing technique in which the printing surface has been carved from a block of wood. The traditional wood block is seasoned hardwood such as apple, beech, or sycamore. A modern trend, however, is to use more inexpensive wood and easily attainable soft woods such as pine. Woodcut is one of the oldest forms of printing first used by the Chinese in the 12th century and later in Europe towards the end of the 14th century.

Traffic on Boulevard Brune

Metamorphosis des Fleurs

Collagraphy, Lithography, and Serigraphy

Collagraphy refers to a printing technique in which proofs are pulled from a block on which the artwork or design is built up like a collage, creating a relief.

A Clear Space is an example of a collagraph

Lithography is a printing technique that uses a planographic process in which prints are pulled on a special press from a flat stone or metal surface that has been chemically sensitized so that ink sticks only to the design areas, and is repelled by the non-image areas. Lithography was invented in 1798 in Solnhofen, Germany by Alois Senefelder. The early history of lithography is dominated by great French artists such as Daumier and Delacroix, and later by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Braque, and Miro.

Night Migration is an example of a lithograph

Serigraphy (silkscreen) can be described as a printing technique that makes use of a squeegee to force ink directly into a piece of paper or canvas through a stencil creating an image on a screen or silk or other fine fabric with an impermeable substance. Serigraphy differs from most other printing in that its color areas are paint films rather than printing-ink stains.

Beverly Hills Forest is an example of a serigraph