Printmaking V Painting - What’s the difference?
Printmaking V Painting - What’s the difference?
When I talk to people about what I do, they either remember having a go at Lino print in school (and more often than not have very fond memories of it), liken it to potato print or stamping (the basic principals are the same but the skill level isn’t) or refer to it as painting. This article is for the latter group.
While there are a few similarities between painting and printmaking, there are some very big differences. I’ll be expanding on some of these differences below as well as answering the question: What is printmaking? And expanding briefly on different types of printmaking.
The magic of the peel back v the gradual emergence of an image
I challenge anyone to watch a print reveal video and not be drawn in. They are definitely amongst my most popular social media posts.
I have total admiration for people who paint as their main art form and I find watching the painting process mesmerising. My youngest brother, Ben Jackson, is a painter who primarily works in oils. While I work in quite a stylistic and sometimes abstracted pop art style, he creates photorealist paintings that blow my mind. Neither of us understands how the other does it and that’s one of the wonderful things about art - no two artists work in exactly the same way.
The therapy of carving v the therapy of brushstrokes
Not all forms of printmaking require a block to be carved. Methods such as monotype are printed using direct contact with the inking plat (a flat glass or perspex surface that the ink is rolled out onto). I enjoy this fast paced method - it’s creative, fun and results in something totally unique. However, my favourite form of printmaking in Linocut.
Using my beautiful Pfeil gouges to remove small sections at a time from the Lino block is so unbelievably therapeutic. I prefer using battleship grey, hessian backed blocks because they offer a good level of resistance. Soft cut blocks can peel and carve so easily that you end up taking too much away and having messy edges.
I love to paint too but it’s not my strongest skill. I tend do a lot of it in my sketchbook and then draw over it or paint a wash then print over it (see my Monthly Florals as an example). The physical feeling of pushing paint around is wonderful (I also like to drop watercolours into little puddles of water on my page and watch the chaos unfold.
As an Art Lead in a primary school, I often would be asked ‘So what are the kids meant to make at the end of this?’. This question saddens me as they were missing the whole point - the joy of playing around with the media and exploring what it can do then using that to inspire the next step.
Both media create gorgeous textures that you only get from originals and you’ll find me in galleries right up close to pieces checking this out. I’m a details person, so I’m not a lover of reproductions in general as these features get lost.
No two prints are the same v every painting is a one off
Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries defines printmaking as ‘the process of creating pictures or designs by printing them from specially prepared plates or blocks’ and painting as ‘the act or art of using paint to produce pictures’.
While, with the block printing techniques (etching, wood block or Lino block etc) you tend to produce multiple prints in the edition, each one is slightly different. One of the bonuses of having that block is that, assuming you don’t carve any more away, you can reprint it in a variety of colour ways. To do this with a painting, you would have to start from scratch and painstakingly reproduce the shapes, forms and strokes again.
Nowadays, replicating a painting tends to be done by a machine and there are varying degrees of quality that this is done in. If you’re looking for high quality then you need to look for Giclee prints (high grade inks printed using sophisticated machines on top quality papers) and avoid the print on demand services (these are glorifies posters).
In the last year or so, I have started to use my imperfect prints to create 3D print collages. Collage pieces (along commissions) are one offs. They either cannot or will not be reproduced.
The joy of machinery v the simpler set up
One of the huge differences between printmaking and painting is the equipment and materials base.
I’ve always found workshops to be fascinating and inspiring places. I suppose this all started in my dad’s garage. Once I got into high school, he would let me use his bench drill and milling machine (supervised) to finish off my school technology projects. I loved be allowed to use these beasts (although I was never allowed near the metal lathe - probably for the best).
Walking into Northern Print in 2017 for their winter open studios, I was taken back to those days using his machines but it was combined with the joyful smell of the inks, which took me back to my college days (I’d have spent all of my hours in the Art Studios at Wigan and Leigh College if I’d been allowed too during my A Levels).
In my studio, I use an A3 Woodzilla bench press or good old elbow grease along with my gouges, inks, inking plates, brayers and palette knives. I print onto specialist printmaking paper and carve battleship grey Lino blocks.
When producing larger prints, I head to Northern Print to use their electric presses and I get giddy every single time.
A painter’s tools are mostly different (although they do use palette knives too!). Often they paint on an easel and apply the paint with a brush. The type of paint, as with printmaking inks, can either be water or oil based and this affects how it is applied and how it dries. With oil based inks, additional oils and spirits can be added to change the drying and spread of the paint.
With paints AND inks, I prefer the oil based products. They pack more punch in terms of pigment and give you more time to play around with them. As with anything though - you get what you pay for!
The problem solving of of art forms
With any creative task, you encounter ‘problems’. Sometimes these cause you to have to take a step back from the task (some artists are know to leave an artwork unfinished for years and then come back and finish it). Other times you play around with it until you find something that works.
This might sound stressful but I often find that this is where the satisfaction comes in. Solving a problem can also be a great way to with off from other things - that’s why people do sudokus or escape rooms, right?
Control over the design process v reacting to the paint drips
I’m not going to suggest that nothing ever goes wrong with ink (it does and if there’s a mistake to make then I’ve made it) but the thickness of printmaking inks and the layering of it on the block with the brayer means that you’re less likely to experience smears or drips., If you over ink a block or surface then you can clean it or take some off before you print.
To a certain extent, this can be done with paint too - you can scrape back with a palette knife or use tissue or rags to remove some, but there will still be a pigment stain. Sometimes these drips and stains become an interesting part of the image. That brings us back to the problem solving aspect.
It’s great to go with the flow and see where the materials take you with any art physical form. That’s where the creativity comes in.
Let me know in the comments if you have found this helpful and feel free to ask any questions that it didn’t answer.
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