WHAT IS A PRINT?
Print uses images for communication. For many artists prints were used for spread their artworks. The techniques are many.
What is an etching?
Old name of nitric acid, used in etching technique on copper slabs or rarely on metal for paper reproductions. It is an easier way to print because the artist don’t have to etching on metal, but on the paint over it.
What is an aquatint?
Etching technique with an acid. The artist scatters the slabs with bitumen or resin grains, sticked by heat or alcool.
What is a lithography?
The artist paints on a stone with a greasy pencil. Before printing, he wets the slab. The oily ink adheres only where the sign is. This technique can be used as a normal drawing and can make a lot of artworks, also with colour during printing. Lithography was born during the XIX century, whit artists as Géricault, Goya and De La Croix.
Coloured lithography: overlapping of moulds, one for each colour.
What is a silk-screen printing?
Technique of etching without wood moulds. Artist uses a fabric on a structure, where he draws with waterproof materials. Then he pours slowly the ink, and spreads it on a paper under the structure.
ADVERTISING PRINTS
It was born with the development of business, for the distribution of products and thanks to the communication for their diffusion. Thanks to the diffusion of lithographies, prints become the easier way to popularize advertising messages which have to attract different people.
