What is an original print?

An original print is made when the artist creates a new piece of work by working with one (or more) of the printmaking media. Unlike a reproduction, where an original painting is photographed and then mechanically printed en-mass resulting in what is essentially a poster, not an original print.

There are four main printmaking media - Etching, Lithography, Screenprinting and Relief printing. As a painter may choose between oil paint or watercolour, the artist-printmaker chooses the medium which offers them the desired effects and working method.

By working closely with the materials and processes of the medium, the artist usually creates a number of prints.If a set of prints are identical, they are known as a limited print edition. An edition of twenty prints are each numbered in pencil in the margin 1/20, 2/20... along with the artists signature and title. Care and skill is required to print a consistent edition as each print is printed by hand, taking a great deal of time. More colours will require more work!

In a seven colour Lithograph, seven individual plates will have been drawn by the artist, with each one intended to print a separate colour. Each piece of paper will pass through the press seven times with each colour -plate being hand-inked each time. An edition of twenty would mean a total of one hundred and forty hand-inked passes thorough the press.

Many artists are not interested in producing identical prints so instead they use the process to create several, often vastly different versions of the same image. Known as trial-proofs (c.t.p), these prints exemplify the nature of printing in that they are unique prints created directly by an artist. An artists-proof (a.p) may be a print which is similar to the edition or the only existing prints if an edition has never been printed.

So an original print is not a 'copy' which has been quickly churned-out at the press of a button. The whole process involves artistic input from creation to completion. A number of carefully honed skills are needed to produce an original piece of fine art which is affordable, being a fraction of the cost of an original painting or drawing.