Lithography

Unfortunately, the space and equipment neccesary to print lithographs precludes me from making anymore. This is a shame, because I really enjoyed the lattitude the medium affords you as a draughtsman. Plus, how often do you get to work with hundred-pound stones as big as your torso?

Here’s a small selection of my lithographic work. Like the rest of this site, it will grow as I digitize more work.

If you don’t know what makes lithography different from other printmaking media, the MoMA has a fantastic site that explains this and other printmaking methods much better than I can.

Lithography is based on the interaction of oil and water: The artist draws directly onto a stone (usually limestone) with special kind of grease pencil. The stone is then treated with nitric acid in a solution of gum arabic. This step is repeated once or several times, with different concentrations of acid, to etch into the stone.

The stone is then wiped clean, and sponged with water. Only the areas left untouched by the solution (the blank areas) will absorb the water. Finally, grease-based ink is rolled onto the stone. The water absorbed in the blank areas repels the ink, but the etched areas hold it.

In the final product, you can see how this allows for a wide variation in tone, giving the finished product a charcol-like quality: