Printmakers apply color to their prints in various means. Usually color in printmaking that involves etching, screen printing, woodcut, or linocut is applied through the use of individual plates, chunks or screens or by using a reductionist approach. In multiple plate color techniques, a bunch of plates, screens or chunks will be made, each providing a distinct color. Every distinct plate, screen, or block would be inked up in a unique color and applied in a specific sequence in order to make the entire picture. Normally about three to four plates will be made, but there are instances in which a printmaker might use as many as 7 plates. Each application of a different plate of color is going to interact with the color already applied to the paper, and this must be considered when creating the separation of colors. The lightest colors are often implemented first, after which darker colors successively prior to the darkest.
The reductionist way of producing color is to begin with a lino or wood block that is either empty or having a simple etching. Upon each printing of color, the printmaker would then further cut into the lino or woodblock removing more material and then apply a different color and reprint. Each successive elimination of lino or wood from the block would expose the already printed color to the observer of the print. Picasso is often cited as the inventor of reduction printmaking, although there is evidence of this method in use 25 years before Picasso’s linocuts.
Valenti Angelo was an Italian-American printmaker, illustrator and author, born June 23, 1897 in Massarosa, Italy. He immigrated to the United States together with his family in 1905, living initially in New York City then moving in Antioch, California. At the age of 19, Angelo transferred to San Francisco, working by day as a labourer and spending his evenings and weekends at libraries and museums and galleries. He quickly evolved into a versatile artisan and a particularly skilled engraver as well as printer.
Angelo’s preferred medium was the linocut, and his prints depicting urban nocturnes and desert scenes of the American Southwest are notably sought after by collectors as well as merchants. In 1926, Angelo made his very first book illustrations for the well-known, San Francisco-based Grabhorn Press. In a period of 34 years, Angelo adorned as well as illustrated approximately 250 books. Among these were folio editions of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, and numerous books of the Bible.
Sybil trained in England, and started creating and exhibiting linocuts from 1921 up until 1939, working regularly with her informal associate Cyril Edward Power. She also aided in the establishment and became the first secretary of the The Grosvenor School of Modern Art. She worked as an oxyacetylene welder in an aircraft factory in World War I, where she assisted in the evolution of the very first all metal aeroplane for the Bristol Welding Company and in the shipyards of the Hampshire city of Southampton during World War II where she became acquainted with Walter Morgan. In England, among the largest collections in public ownership is held by St Edmundsbury Borough Council Heritage Service Bury St Edmunds. This collection features a selection of early water-colour paintings, executed while the artisan was still residing in Suffolk.
Printmaking is definitely a vast medium in art and could be studied almost anywhere, in art classes or from printmakers. Once you know the basics, you will find there are several ways to create a really great print.





