Viscosity printing is a multi-color

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

technique that incorporates principles of

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

printing and intaglio printing. It was pioneered by Stanley William Hayter. The process uses the principle of

viscosity Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent drag (physics), resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of ''thickness''; for e ...

to print multiple colors of ink from a single plate, rather than relying upon multiple plates for

color separation Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). History of color printing Woodblock printing on textiles preceded printing on paper in both Ea ...

. It is a fine art printmaking technique, making original prints in limited editions, as it is slow and allows too much variation between proofs to make large editions feasible. Color viscosity printing is among the latest developments in ''intaglio'' printmaking. Color viscosity printing was developed by a group working at Atelier 17 in Paris in the mid-1950s. This group included Stanley William Hayter, Kaiko Moti, Krishna Reddy, Clare Snider Smith and Shirley Wales. Martin Barooshian arrived at Atelier 17 in 1956, working closely with Hayter, Moti, Reddy and in particular Wales, he further innovated color viscosity printmaking, pushing it to its limits to create more objective imagery, ultimately becoming one of its most important masters.

Intaglio

There are a number of different types of original print methods to be aware of. Intaglio prints: for example a dollar bill—bills and most stamps are engraved in metal plates and are printed after a viscous ink (about the consistency of oil paint) is forced into grooves, scratches, etched lines or indentations. The polished surface is then wiped clean using newsprint and

tarlatan The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, with color an ...

, leaving ink only below plate level. The plate is then covered with a dampened paper and felt blankets. It is run through the press where great pressure (approximately 16,000 PSI or 1.103 kbar) pushes the dampened paper down into the engraved or etched grooves to pick up ink. In other words, in intaglio we see printed what is below the surface of the plate and the ink is now embossed on the paper. Among the greatest masters of engraving and etching are

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; ; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He ...

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

, and

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

The process

Three to four colors of ink are mixed, each of a different viscosity. This viscosity is adjusted by the addition of uncooked

linseed oil Linseed oil, also known as flaxseed oil or flax oil (in its edible form), is a colorless to yellowish oil obtained from the dried, ripened seeds of the flax plant (''Linum usitatissimum''). The oil is obtained by pressing, sometimes followed by ...

. Metal plates, usually copper or zinc, are used, as in the intaglio processes. The artist produces images on the plate by etching lines or textures. The plate is then inked in several stages. The first ink would be fairly dense—of a relatively high viscosity. The application of the high-viscosity ink is carried out as in any intaglio process: by forcing it into the recesses of the plate and then wiping off the plate's surface with a

. Ink of a second color, and the thinnest viscosity, is then applied to the surface of the plate with a hard rubber roller, so that it covers the plate in one pass and only transfers onto the highest areas of the plate. Ink of a third color, and a much stiffer consistency, is then applied to the lower areas of the plate with a softer rubber roller. The varying viscosities of the two rolled-on inks prevent them from mixing. A fourth color, of even thinner viscosity, can also be applied at this point. This color is either spread out on a glass plate, which is then pressed against the printing plate so that the ink only adheres to the highest points of the metal plate, or it is applied by a hard roller applied with very little pressure. This process may be done with a monotype as well. Inking the acrylic or plexiglass plate with one ink with a very high viscosity, and following that, rolling a very loose ink over it, produces two tones on a single plate. One may attempt to scratch an image onto the plate, but acrylic and plexiglass plates are more temperamental than copper or zinc, and wear out sooner. A sheet of printing paper is then placed on the upright plate and passed through a printing press, which prints all of the colors simultaneously. This is of a certain advantage, as in some other multi-color printing processes, correct registration of the blocks presents a difficulty.

Intaglio

The process

See also

References

Further reading