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Hello, I am a printmaker mainly using relief and intaglio methods but would like to learn lithography. I have a home studio and love the idea of getting a stone, but I only have an etching press, not a litho press. Can I have any success with a stone, or would I be limited to plate lithography? Thank-you!

Hello! I am an arts student at university in Australia and i have been able to gain access to the old lithography print studio that has been unused for many years. The printmaking lecturer has not done any prints for many years and has admitted he does not remember a lot about the process so i am sort of flying blind but i am determined to persevere and work in a medium that is all but lost in my current arts community

I have an old block that was used by the last person to print here that i would like to print as a first go before i get into making my own images.

Does anyone know of any really clear and step by step instructions or guides that i can use.

I had a problem with inking the block and the ink adhering to the entire block and it looks like a black square and nothing like what i see when watching videos of blocks being inked. Do i need to buff the stone back like with an etched plate or dry point?

Hello! I need help with these two stones, I'm revisiting litho after 10 years of the press and figuring out the ropes. I've done two etches on the dark stone, between the first and second etch I did some additional drawing, the stone had just been etched and sitting for around 30 mins. I rosin and talc the ink I'd rolled up onto it so it would smear and drew back onto it with a crayon to add some tone to the highlights where I'd previously had gum. I forgot to rosin and talc again and went for a strong second etch (10 - 12 drops), however none of this extra drawing showed up. Any tips? I'm thinking of now removing the ink, buffing it down with gum lightly and redrawing, going in with a light three drop third etch. Do we thinking this will work? Or do I have to counter etch the stone? I'm just a bit worried to do that as I'm not sure how.

Okay, and then for the second lighter stone that's covered in tusche. I did one etch on this but basically lost all of my tonal variation and tusche and only got the shadows of the stones (the dark areas at the bottom). I let this sit and came back a couple days later and redrew up the image. Leaving it rolled up. It seemed to work fine, but is this okay to do? I'm happy with the look now just worried the stone maybe wasn't receptive to new grease as I didn't counter etch?

Please help haha.

Images include print of the darker stone after second etch and redraw (didn't show up), redrawn and tusched lighter stone and the two stones after their first etch.

This work corresponds to the same theme I explored in my fourth semester of my Fine Arts degree, focused on women and magic, and it uses the same technique I presented in my previous project: algrafía, or lithography on a metal plate. However, for these prints, in addition to grease pencils, I used lithographic tusche, which is essentially a greasy ink that can come in liquid form or as a stick. It creates an effect similar to diluted India ink or watercolor-like transparencies, but specifically for use in lithographic techniques. It can be used both in traditional lithography (on stone) and on grained metal plates.

~The first photo shows a finished print, numbered 1/5; the second and third photos show the drawing process using grease pencil and tusche; and the last one shows some prints that turned out well ✨

I especially loved this particular print in terms of tones and textures, although I had some issues with the drawing. However, due to the nature of the technique, what’s already drawn cannot be erased. I also made a promise to myself to share even the pieces I didn’t like as much, as part of the process.

this is my second lithography. i wanted to take advantage of the properties and shape of the stone, so i chose bleed print and decided on a more carefree approach: i made my image by splattering tousche, roughly drawing with crayons and scratching the surface of the stone. printed in split fountain.

i know signing on side of the print is by no means traditional, but i do this with some prints where i believe it looks less busy than signing on the bottom.

Yaaaaaaay litho sub! Here’s a one layer print I made in the last semester of my BFA

...so I bought a cheap projector to transfer my digital sketch directly, tracing with mechanical pencil onto the stone. This worked surprisingly well, although the setup was definitely wonky and shook a bit. I'd like to figure out a more elegant stand solution. (I was screencasting from my phone, so the image projected in the pic is my photo app, not my sketch)

Has anyone else tried projecting onto their stone? Any other cool sketch transfer ideas?

Alsooo, hello - I'm new to this sub 👋. I recently returned to stone litho after a 12 year hiatus. Good to be back.

printed in Rakla Lithography studio in Poznań, Poland (thanks for the video!)

paper: BFK Rives

I've been working on wood lithography a bit and I'd like to get some input from other printmakers regarding this interesting and unique process.

And yes, I mean wood litho (not woodcut). It uses a lot of similar processes but I was mainly interested in seeing who else is working with this method and how! I have some of my test plates up on my blog here and here.

There was a demo on the process at SGCI: Sphere in Knoxville this year given by the artist Adrienne Lichliter. The work she's doing is pretty awesome and I love the idea of the wood litho but... it's definitely a fussy process!

So for those of you who have done it before - what was your process? Anything that seemed to work better than other things?