Print making: lithography

Laura Bianchi, MA student of Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL, demonstrates the techniques of lithography - using carborundum, oil, water and ink - and discusses how the painterly aspect of the process suits her artistic practice.
There are many amazing lithographic prints by artists such as Rosenquist, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns in the exhibition:
The American Dream: pop to the present
9 March - 18 June 2017
Book now: goo.gl/7khoaY
Sponsored by Morgan Stanley
Supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art
This film was made in collaboration with the printmaking tutors, technicians and students at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL.
Find out more about printmaking courses at UAL
www.arts.ac.uk/camberwell/cour...

[@ragnkja]

Although I did enjoy hearing about the artistic process, I also wish there was more about the technical process.

[@steropeshu]

I believe you'd enjoy this video then: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGSqlImqhKh-rpY

[@rodneykingston6420]

I searched looking for the technical process so I was totally annoyed listening to her go on about her feelings as an artist. Esp. because what she does really looks like cr@p to me.

[@lienhoa_12]

Hello, this is the technical process description in Art Fundamental (by Ocvirk, Stinson, Wigg, Bone, Cayton, 154). Hope it helps: In _lithography_ , a full range of achromatic value is drawn by oil crayon on limestone (or metal plates). After being chemically treated and washed in water, the stone allows the application of ink only in the drawn areas. When the ink stone is covered with paper and passed through a press with a scraper bar, the pressure of the press forces the ink to transfer to the paper.

[@morkah0lic596]

Thanks. This helped me a lot!

[@elliehague5278]

I am wanting to do something that looks like lithography drawings for my AP art portfolio, can anyone recommend any artistic practices/medium that could get a look similar to lithography?

[@pobachip85]

Why is the end result different than stone she started with? Like the E is lowercase now :/

[@gabrielleallade6094]

Hearing about the artistic process was nice, but i was expecting the technical process. I mean, the title is "how to." :(

[@otakuribo]

Both the process: the manual labor and machinery involved; and the final product: the purposeful asymmetry and blotchiness of the letters, are somehow quite representative of the American dream. 👍

[@tremblaycallum783]

Live below your means

[@foxfoxfox4866]

No they're not

[@esser7678]

almost like you're defending her for being bad at it🤔 could you be her?

[@helenamcginty4920]

I never managed to get my plate to work. I loved etching. Screen printing was straightforward but my litho never worked. And i could never find anyone with the tome to show me what i was doing wrong.

[@victoriamatamoros8021]

How were you doing it? In my home the process is kind of different, but maybe this will help if you want to try: Sand the stone with sand and the big round tool for that (we called it "graneador" but I don't think is it correct name), after that, use sand paper of 220 grain in small circular moves to open the pore in the stone. Put vinegar for 3 minutes (it has to have between 4% and 6% acidity) and apply it with circular moves. Let it dry and don't touch the stone with your skin. Draw with the crayon or the litho crayon, don't touch the stone, try to use a small wood table to leverage your hand and avoid touch the stone. The stone need to rest an entire day, 24 hours. After the rest, we use vegetable resin powder in the draw, and after that, talcum power in all the stone. We applied with a big brush and remove the rests in different boxes. Prepare the mordants: In our case we use arabic glue (or gum arabic idk how it is spelled in English) is glue for litho purposes, maybe can be found that way. We mixed it with lemon, I think people of the north use some kind of acid, we use lemon, lima or limón mandarina, I don't really try with the yellow ones from the north so don't know if it works. It has to be a fresh one. The mordants in my case are 1 ounce or arabic glue and 6, 9 and 23 drops of lemon juice for 3 different mordants. You start applying it with a brush, and start with the one with the lowest lemon drops, putting it in the whitest zones, and then to the last one that is the blackest: This has to be done it in 5 minutes (chronometer), and when you reach the last one need to be applied to all the stone. After that 5 minutes, remove the excess of mordant with a cloth towel, the thin one for kitchen are good for that: You need to leave a thin layer or glue, don't remove too much but don't leave too much. Let it rest 30 minutes. Apply thinner with a soft cloth, don't rub too hard or everything will fail. Apply tar, remove with a cloth and let it dry a little, not too much. After, use two cellulose sponges, put water with a clean one from above, one that will not touch the tar, and with a dirty one remove the tar from the stone, I use two small plastic recipients, one for clean water and other for dirty one. Once the stone is clean don't let it dry, start putting ink (the ink need a little bit of talcum power, not oil, and obviously need to be oil based ink), never letting it dry, try to put water with the clean sponge directly in the stone a never let it dry. Keep inking the stone. Once fully inked, more resin and talcum power, repeat the mordants and let it rest 30 minutes, more thinner and more tar, and now the inking is for printing: Ink the stone and only fully inked the draw you dry the stone with a manual fan. Put grease to the press, your paper in the stone, some paper to protect your print, an acrylic, calibrate the press and move the press. With all that, you have a litho-stone print :D

[@gwenmorris9538]

She's lovely but I don't think I really understood much about the process.

[@pobachip85]

But also why is everyone hating on this haha it's a cool process

[@MrBrownnn696]

I didn't understand it.... so that was the 1st copier right ?

[@gabrielleallade6094]

actually the first printing process was block printing. it was created in China and spread to Europe where Guttenburg developed the moveble type to print his bible.

[@JBTheMighty]

I would love to work at The British Museum.

[@ufosully]

So you can see all the stuff the Brits stole and won't give back?

[@houstonpromotion]

I can tell she’s good at what she does just by her accent

[@esser7678]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@xxhamedxx01]

what makes the surface being whit and smooth like that???

[@ccppttbbobb7484]

You grind it with wet carborundum and another stone on top. Then can reuse the stone hundreds of times.

[@xxhamedxx01]

​@@ccppttbbobb7484 Oh cool. thanks for the explanation. I think carborundum or SIC is also being used in scratching processes and it makes some kind of shading patterns in printing am I right? it scratches the inked surface and makes a white shading pattern.

[@claytonneff6596]

Horrible title. There was no information about "how" to make a print.

[@tripleaaa4409]

Clayton Neff where does it say ‘how’ in the title?

[@Ghost-hd5cu]

@@tripleaaa4409it looks like they changed the title at some point

[@cpt_nordbart]

I always thought Lithography was made by carving stone plates into stamps. I was wrong.

[@gabrielleallade6094]

That would be xylography. Close though, as they were both invented fairly close together.

[@crikitten]

The letters are fkin awesome

[@S30kupatel999]

Lovely 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@Ccharloitte]

She said in the beginning that it’s close to my... I can’t hear that word! 🙈

[@IdentifiantDeCatacombe]

Sounds like sensitivity or something

[@taliyahthompson6072]

For all those who don't undestand, think about stamps, or the wax that they use to close envelopes.

[@flaviabjedi]

A great giant limestone has fell off my hands while working,I have prints of the same limestone,.....parts of it have been broken meanwhile printing(because of the pressure) 😁🤣❤️

[@joeridgechua]

Respect the crafts

[@MissNLucero]

The finished print is not from the same slab that she makes in the beginning

[@petrfrizen6078]

The sea of splash incrusted with the droplets of the octopus ink… Billowing fantasies… American Coastal Dreams! American Territorial Waters Dreams!

[@porcupinesauce3872]

what.

[@petrfrizen6078]

@@porcupinesauce3872 ?.. Meaning?..

[@aimeethomson7806]

Glasgow have the art fire

[@aimeethomson7806]

Why no plates with the typewriting poems

[@watchdealer11]

Search up "Pressure + Ink: Lithography Process" Much better video.

[@BobsonofZeus]

Missed a few steps she did.

[@Pppoosch]

Okay. I definitely don't understand it.

[@S30kupatel999]

Waoooooo

[@S30kupatel999]

My video Villan artist

[@almalauha]

Nice video but I have no clue at all regarding what she is doing. I hoped that there was narration to even just state the highest level of what the steps are about.

[@HelloInsights]

Watch this in hindi

[@batribatri8771]

Amparte total!

[@valerian8999]

That looked like a lot of work to produce something that looks like a toddler got into an inkwell and tried to clean himself off by smearing his hands on paper.

[@rickyay26]

All that work, noise, and hype for just that stain of letters...

[@zzzioporco]

Bla bla bla bla If you don't get it why comment it? You look ignorant and stupid

[@Lollero200q]

Original

[@IdentifiantDeCatacombe]

You have all this stuff and you use it to make some crappy letters?

[@void.lawyer]

She is a student dude. She probs didn't get paid for this and her schedule is packed. She was trying to show it in the most quick and simple terms. Why tf does everyone expect a million percent from people for free? Go make something.

[@crikitten]

​@@void.lawyeryeah, people expect to be entertained all the time and for free 😂

[@valerian8999]

@@void.lawyershe could have literally done anything, like a cat drawing. Her decision to produce something that makes lithography look horribly limited and/or prone to disastrous results isn’t helpful to anyone wanting to learn about this art. If she’s too stretched for time to put in even the most minuscule effort on producing a quality result, then just don’t bother.

[@ApotheosisTK117]

Is there any specific, intentional reason she made such a horrendous looking print for the video? Like, does she _sell_ stuff like that? Is that what her "work" looks like? What is going on here?

[@torink8229]

You sound like a hater lol, totally the definition of a debbie downer.

[@MeneTekelUpharsin]

Those are all good questions

[@arpitbindlish100]

Really??? 3:38 minutes for this??????

[@ryushogun9890]

Meh

[@katnip6289]

I don't understand why she used that thick block like thing. it seem like a useless tool for lithography.

[@petrfrizen6078]

Probably, to make the engraving on it later on...

[@Juliana-Bub]

Do you mean the lithostone? The object for which the artform is named? Litho literally means stone.

[@sanakhaldy8131]

It is not informative 😕

[@w.urlitzer1869]

useless without explanation of the process.

[@paulwoodford1984]

lol what the hell was that mess at the end. Who on earth would buy that crap

[@avibarman]

This video gives lithography a bad name!

[@ismyalak1419]

are we in 50's ? I am scared.

[@walterharoldbishop]

wow. that was the most meaningless 3 min of my life. this video did not answer any of the questions I had hoped to find out before watching this video. and by the way, her work is like.. wtf???

[@aryandawoodi5989]

I have seen elephants draw better pictures than that.

[@husenmaharjan1561]

People nowdays have zero creative and make arts like kids in grade one and proudly addressess it as his/her creativity .

[@crikitten]

Kids are more creative than most adults :)

[@danem2215]

Imagine both not understanding art is subjective AND dismissing creativity of children. Gotta love when the art snobs crawl out of the sewers on every video.

[@charquican10000]

ugly stuff.....

[@whatever5652]

Such a pity she didn't write something worth printing!

[@sushanttiwari7116]

Is this what we call a poor job?

[@bernadettesasak6668]

It looks like shit. I could have done that with some cheap water colors in like 40 seconds. I get maybe the process is what is so amazing but if that is the end result... yikes.

[@paytonlee9836]

Exactly. And a horrible drawing

[@joeridgechua]

Is it because you're anti-America?

[@S30kupatel999]

My FB page Satish Kumar patel