Linen
Created from the Flax plant which is one of the few crops still produced in Western Europe, linen provides a conservator’s grade painting surface that assures artists the highest quality materials and preserves finished artwork century after century. A classical standard used by the old masters, the linen retains its natural oils, resisting cracks and disintegration, thus oil and acrylic paintings will last a lifetime if kept in the appropriate environment. Linen is traditionally primed with a glue followed by several coats of white ground and stretched over a stretcher frame and stapled or nailed in place.

Canvas
Cotton canvas is much less expensive than linen, and has become the most popular support for oil and acrylic painting. Cotton or synthetic polymer canvas can be stuck down to a backing board or, more traditionally, stretched over a stretcher frame and stapled or nailed in place. A properly prepared cotton canvas has good longevity, is more flexible and easier to stretch properly. However, cotton is considered too flexible for very large paintings. For both oil and acrylic painting, an acrylic gesso primer is generally used.

Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint containing pigment suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water), the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting.

Acrylics are often used as an alternative to oil paints because acrylics dry much faster (usually within an hour or even as little as less than a minute, depending on brand and thickness of application).

Oil Paint
Oil painting is made with pigment ground into a medium of oil, such as linseed oil. Other oils occasionally used include poppy seed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. These oils result in different properties in the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying times. The oil usually takes weeks or even months to dry.

Many Renaissance sources credit northern European painters of the 15th century with the "invention" of painting with oil media on wood panel. Jan van Eyck is an artist often mentioned as the "inventor". The popularity of oil grew in 16th century Venice, where a water-durable medium was essential.

Linseed oil is highly resistant to water and requires some sort of paint thinner such as soap, turpentine or benzene-based thinners to clean up.

 

Photography

A photograph (often just called a photo) is an image created by collecting and focusing reflected electromagnetic radiation obtained through a camera. The most common photographs are those created with reflected visible wavelengths, producing permanent records of what the human eye can see. More recently, the possibilities for photography have become endless with the introduction of digital cameras and techniques.

 

Printmaking Techniques

Prints are derived from ink applied to a precisely textured and treated plate (usually timber, stone, or metal). There are many different print methods, most of which have been used for hundreds of years. Each method is intricate and complex, and lends itself to a particular effect. Bold contrasts, brushstrokes, fine detail and precision, large designs, tonal range and saturation. Importantly, each method requires many hours of collaboration between artist and master printer. Often during this time, a special bond is formed and hence most artists work only with their own master printer.

Lithograph
The artist draws on a flat stone or metal surface with greasy crayons, pens, or pencils. A solution of gum arabic and dilute nitric acid is then washed over the plate to fix the design in place. The plate is then rinsed with water, and ink is applied. The ink fixes to the design but is repelled by the wet blank areas of the plate. The design is then transferred to a damp sheet of paper. This process is repeated for every colour in the piece.

Hand made Collograph
The image is created from a variety of textured materials glued to a timber or metal plate. The materials used to form the image can be anything from watercolour papers, tissue paper, or wax paper, right through to soft wire, string, tin foil, sand paper, or even bottle caps. Ink is then applied to the deeper surfaces (intaglio), the top surfaces (relief print), or a combination of both.

Etchings
A metal plate is coated with a ground of acid-impervious material, and the artist draws through this coating to expose metal. The plate is then immersed in acid until the exposed areas are sufficiently eaten into or “bitten”. The ground is then removed, ink is applied, and the plate is pressed against damp paper producing a reverse image. Deeper etches result in darker areas on the print.

Screenprints
A stencil is created by the artist and placed on a silk screen which is a piece of mesh stretched over a frame. The screen is placed over the paper, and ink is forced through the screen with a squeegee to reproduce the shape of the stencil.

Woodcuts
The artist draws on a piece of wood (or on paper which is adhered to the wood). The non-printing areas of the piece are then carved away, leaving the printable areas standing up in relief. These areas are then inked with a roller, and the plate is applied to paper.

Relief Printing
An impression is created by the uncarved or raised areas of a wood, linoleum, or plastic plate. The ink is applied to the raised surface, while the recessed areas remain clear. The plate is then applied to paper. Often the paper is pushed into the recessed areas to create an embossed effect.

Collotype
Collotype is a hybrid letterpress/lithography process. Lithography because it is planographic and the plates are printed damp. Letterpress because of the style of press. The process in a nutshell: Dichromate activated gelatinis dried above its melting temperature in a light-proof oven. After being contact printed (UV), the plate is washed. The gelatin absorbs water and expands in opposite proportionto its exposure. This reticulation generates an inconsistent dot-pattern which when printed can appear as continuous tone. Ink adheres to the hardened, exposed gelatin and is rejected from the soft, saturated gelatin.

Multi-plate coloured Etching
The technique of multi-plate coloured etching, involves the artist drawing parts of an image on a series of plates and printing them individually in a layered effect using a hand operated etching press. Within this process, there are a number of other techniques that can be used to create tones, lines and textures such as Aquatint, Sugar lift, soft ground and dry point. A basic etching is created using a resist that is rolled or painted on to a metal plate. Lines are then drawn into the resist with an etching needle exposing the metal beneath and then the plate is placed into an acid bath for a short time. Where the resist has been scraped away by the needle the acid cuts or “bites” into the plate creating a groove for the ink to sit in. A portion of the drawn or tonal information will be on one of the plates which is inked up with a rubber roller and put through the press, other marks and tones can be in other colours and are created on a separate plate, while the more detailed information of drawn lines and darker tones might be drawn on another plate and put through the press last.