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Printmaker
Creates art by transferring images from a prepared surface (woodblock, metal plate, screen) to paper.
Did you know?
Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" is a woodblock print — one of the most reproduced images in history
How subjects help
- Art & Design: Carve or draw an image in reverse so it prints the right way round on paper.
- Chemistry: Use acid to bite fine lines into a metal plate so it holds ink for an etching.
- Physics: Set the right pressure on a printing press so ink transfers evenly without smudging.
- History: Learn traditions like Japanese woodblock printing and adapt them for new artworks.
A famous name
Hokusai: Japanese artist who made the woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa around 1831.
Try it yourself: Hunt for textures and make a rubbing picture
- Put paper over something textured and rub the side of a crayon gently across it until the texture appears.
- Collect at least five different textures on separate bits of paper, using different colours.
- Tear your rubbings into pieces with your fingers and arrange them into a picture, like a tree made of bark and leaf textures.
- Show someone and see if they can guess what made each texture.
Printmakers and scenic painters build surfaces from texture, pressing or painting them so a flat sheet or a stage flat looks like wood, stone or brick.
Adapted from Frye Art Museum: Tracking Down Texture activity.
Also try: Test a tile pattern that fits together.
Known for it in
Japan, Germany, UK, USA, Netherlands