Prints inspired by Wright with Green Door Printmaking Studio

Create your own prints inspired by Joseph Wright with Green Door Printmaking Studio.

Discover more about printing techniques as you will get the opportunity to watch a fascinating Mezzotint demonstration and have a go at a dry point printmaking activity.

What is Mezzotint?

Mezzotint is an intaglio technique that produces monochromatic, tonal-based prints. First created in 1642 by Ludwig von Siegen, Mezzotint was the first printing process to create half-tones without lines or dot-based hatching/stippling.
The process requires a copper plate to be ‘roughened’ with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a ‘rocker’. The image is then scraped or burnished on this surface to produce lighter tones on areas of the plate.

The finished print can often portray striking portrayals of light, alongside deep, velvet blacks, that can often create atmospheric, contemplative and dramatic prints.

Due to the time needed to produce the plate and the subsequent time needed to scrape/burnish the image into the plate, the process itself can take weeks and months to produce an effective image.

A demonstration will be held by printmaker Steven Allen, printing an already completed Mezzotint plate, showing tools used, the plate making process, translation of artwork to the plate, the wiping techniques used and then the printing of the plate.

What is Drypoint?

Drypoint is a printmaking technique that creates a line-based image by using sharp tools to scratch into the surface of a perspex plate. The style of this method lends itself well to loose drawing and expressive, fluid mark making.

Often confused with the process of etching, Drypoint is in itself an individual, standalone technique. It consists of drawing, or ‘engraving’, fairly deeply into the plate using specialist tools in order to create an image.

Unlike etching there is no use of resists or mordants to bite the plate, making drypoint a fairly simple way to create a plate for printing multiple prints.

During this workshop, you will learn how to create marks needed to print your image, inking up and wiping the plate, ready for printing – and then finally print your image on specialist printmaking papers

Green Door Printmaking Studio:

Green Door Printmaking Studio is Derbyshire’s only open access artist studio dedicated to the art and craft of innovative and environmentally sound printmaking.

“We research, develop and teach the very latest techniques and processes for innovative and environmentally sound printmaking, whilst building a local, national and international artist’s community of printmakers dedicated to safer printmaking practices by inviting contributions to our projects, exhibitions and print exchanges.

We strive to raise the profile of printmaking as a primary art form with a long and distinguished history.”

Booking essential, suitable for ages 12+.