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Reproducing a painting as a print before photography.
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Posted
It's always puzzled me and I'm still none the wiser after all these years; how did they reproduce a coloured print of a painting before colour photography existed? I was looking at some 1930's railway posters on Llangollen station on Saturday and the reproductions clearly show the brush strokes etc of the original painting.
So what was the process? How did they get from a single painting to something that could be turned out in multiples? I presume they printed each colour separately but beyond that I haven't a clue and how did that printing reproduce all the subtlety of the original?
Some one out there must know....it's your chance to shine!
Posted
I looked up the early Canadian pacific posters, which I've liked ever since I visited Lake Louise 20 odd years ago. This was my best result :- https://www.ornamentum.ca/post/canadian-pacific-railway-posters-the-making-of-canada-s-landscape-image and then what is Serigraph printing https://cedarhilllonghouse.ca/blogs/what-is-serigraph-printing/
Hope it's what you're after.
Posted
In lithographic printing, the design is drawn in waxy crayon onto a smooth surface, typically limestone blocks (later metal plates) which are then doused with water and covered with an oil-based ink. The waxy drawn areas repel the water and soak up the ink, before being transferred to the paper.
Just looked this up Peter and copied and pasted it. I thought I was Lithograph , my sister in law at one stage in her life printed stuff like this painstaking but beautiful.
Hope you enjoyed the choo choo train in Llangollen.... quite close to me.
Posted
If they are lithographs the process involves marks into a wax surface.the colour added and then printed one at a time. Therefor any marks eg brush marks will appear on each print.
I think!. I am not an expert and my sister in law isn't around to ask.. I have done screen printing in the dim and distant past but a whole different process.... any more thoughts. Anyone ?
It's not just blocks of colour like the 1930's posters.
I understand the printing process, it's how they got from the painting to there that I'm in the dark about.