Stone lithography prints

The stone I used for my first lithography print representing a great decade.

Aluminum plate lithography

Lithography is the art of printing from stone. The process was invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796, and the fundemental principles that he established have remained unchanged. By writing or drawing with a greasy ink on a specially prepared slab of limestone, the grease is absorbed by the stone and the image thus formed has an affinity for printing ink, while the remaining parts of the stone repel the ink as long as the surface is kept moist with water. Lithographic presses are cylinder…

Lithography stone etched image by student from RMIT, lithography creates textures other printmaking techniques cannot.

Morh print in black and white on a lithography stone

I have been interested in learning lithography techniques for a long time. I discovered a print studio and workshop near my home, and I decided to give it a try. Of course I would be drawing botanical illustration. All I knew about lithography was that it was based on drawing with an oil crayon on … Continued

Printers working on a Rufino Tamayo stone, 1982. This is the largest lithography stone in history.

After the MAPC conference and Michael Barnes's demonstration on asphaltum reduction lithography I was itching to try it out. As soon as I had all the materials and a base rolled out on the stone I began work on an image. It took a little longer than I expected, mostly because it acted like a mezzotint, in that I thought I had a clean, white area only to go back to it the next day and have to "brighten" it back up. Not to mention all those damn little curls. The (upside down!) stone on the…