Glossary of Art Making Techniques

Some of these definitions are established and others are just defined by how I use them in my teaching and to describe my work.

Acrylic - Any use of pigmented polymers to produce an image.

Artist Proof - A print that can be identical or slightly different from the edition and is usually retained by the artist. Artist Proofs generally number about 10% over the quantity of impressions in the edition.

Assemblage - A process that usually requires a three dimensional alteration of a picture surface. It could be build on top of the surface as in piano strings strung across or cut into the surface like a niche.

Chine colle - A collage process in printmaking where the collaged element is adhered at the time of printing. The result is that it gets sandwiched between the backing paper and the layer of ink.

Collage - An applied process where paper or some other material is adhered on top of another surface.

Digital ink jet - Any image that is derived from an inkjet printer. In my art it can be an entire background or just a simple collaged element.

Drawing - A direct mark made with a simple graphic tool like a pencil, chalk, crayon, sometimes a brush. It can be as complex as a complete composition or as simple as written letters on the surface.

Edition - Also called “limited edition” refers to a group of identical artworks that are derived from the same matrix. Each work is an original and usually bears a number in the form of a fraction.

Edition Varied- A numbered group of prints that vary slightly from one to another. It may be due to different inking techniques, color, or the addition of certain changing elements. It is related to the term Monoprint although the intention is to maintain an overwhelmingly similar impression from print to print rather than producing differing or unique images. Also called variable edition and noted as a fraction plus the letters E.V. or in the case of my work, var. ed.

Ghost- This is the remaining image left on a plate after it’s been printed. The impression pulled from a ghost plate is called a ghost print.

ImagOn - a light sensitive photopolymer film used for intaglio plate-making techniques.

Impression - The general term used to identify the process of transferring ink from one surface to another as in “pulling an impression.”  

Intaglio - An image derived from a repeatable matrix in which the ink is printed from beneath the surface. This may include etching, drypoint, engraving, Solarplate, and ImagOn. A way of printing (intaglio wipe) in which ink is deposited across a matrix and then wiped off leaving it in the areas below the surface.

Intaglio-Type - A name coined by Keith Howard to describe the range of intaglio printmaking techniques that utilize photopolymer film for intaglio plate making.

Lithograph - A printed image made from a flat surface that results from the repulsion of grease and water. Ink that is rolled onto a lithographic stone or plate will adhere to a grease receptive mark while water will repel the ink from the non greasy areas.

Matrix - A plate or other printing surface in which an image is embedded. I use the word matrix when I am referring to a plate that has a repeatable image in it unlike a monotype plate which is flat and unaltered. The plural of matrix is matrices.

Medium - A technique or established form of art-making as in general terms such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, etc. or more specifically acrylic, carved wood, intaglio, etc. In my teaching I prefer to use the term “tool.”

Mezzotint Screen - A transparency containing the image of thousands of tiny dots. It is used in Solarplate and ImagOn to create a texture on the plate where ink will remain to produce a tone. Also called an aquatint, stochastic, or halftone screen.

Mixed media - A very broad category of artworks created by the application of two or more mediums or techniques.

Monoprint - A unique image created from a plate or other matrix that has the potential to print in multiple. A repeatable image that is made unique by the addition of drawing, or watercolor, or monotype, etc.

Monotype - A unique image created by the transfer of hand applied ink from a flat, smooth, unaltered surface usually to paper. A transfer painting.

Multiple plate- A technique that utilizes more than one plate or matrix to produce a final image. It can be planned for at the onset of a project or as in most of my own work and in my teaching be the result of having to resolve a particular image as it evolves.

On paper mounted to wood - the initial support of an image was paper and then it was mounted to wood.

On paper - The basic surface that supports the image is made of paper.

On wood - The structural surface supporting an image is made of a wooden panel or a hollow core door.

Original - Authentic or genuine work of art, and so not a copy or forgery. In printmaking it refers to the intention of the artist in that he or she desires to use a technique that produces multiples such as etching. In this case each impression is an original etching even though there is more than one. The difference is that the intention was not to make reproductions of something but rather to use the specific technique of etching to produce an image that also creates multiples. An etching can be an original but not unique and a painting is both original and unique.

Print - When used as a noun, a repeatable image on paper or some other surface or as a verb; as in the act of pulling an impression from one surface to another. Examples of prints are etchings, silkscreens, woodcuts, Giglees, and posters. A monotype is strictly not a print since there can only be one impression. More technically I call a monotype a transfer painting.

Registration - The process of lining up paper to plate or other printing surface. A guide used to line up paper as in “registration marks.”

Solarplate - a light sensitized polymer printing plate with steel backing used for intaglio and relief printmaking, developed for artists by Dan Welden in 1971.  Processed with UV light and water instead of acid.   

Solarplate intaglio - An intaglio impression resulting from the process using a Solarplate matrix for printmaking.  

Solarplate relief - A relief impression using the raised portions of a Solarplate matrix for printmaking.

Solar Platinum- This is a name for the original plate material also called polymer KM plates used in the photopolymer industry that yields a high resolution image with UV exposure and water developing.

Substrate - A support upon which other marks or actions are taken. In a work on paper, paper is the substrate. If it gets mounted to wood then wood becomes the substrate.

Transparency - The surface that holds an image used to create a Solarplate or ImagOn plate. Sometimes I will use a transparency as a collage element in painting or printmaking.

Unique - One of a kind.

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