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Introduction to lithography Video Lecture - Humanities/Arts
Text Transcript from Video
We're at the Robert Blackburn
Printmaking Workshop,
started in 1945 by Robert Blackburn.
Lithography was invented
for the purpose of
reproducing sheet music.
Instead of writing it once by hand
over and over and over and over,
Senefelder developed lithography
for the purpose of writing
that orchestral arrangement one time,
so it could be reproduced,
so that it could be sold
to multiple orchestras throughout cities
throughout all over Europe.
That's was its original intention.
When an artist gets
ahold of something that
allows you to work in a new way,
they will always take
those tools and materials
and use them for their
own artistic purposes.
That was the case for engraving.
It was the case for relief
printing or woodcut.
It's also the case for
digital printmaking now.
Lithography is based on
a very simple principle
that grease and water resist one another
and so what you'll see
is a balance of the plate
being dampened and then rolled over
with a greasy based ink.
It's the same as when
you're cleaning dishes.
If you've got a really greasy pan
and you fill it up with water,
you start putting water in it,
it starts to pull away from the grease.
The exact same thing is happening here
only it's very finely
controlled placed grease.
One of the things that
makes lithography so unique
is that it actually is
the most autographic
of like all the printmaking processes.
It captures the exact mark of the hand
that moves across that surface.
As a result, it gains the most clarity
from a drawer's perspective
from a direct point of view.
All the other printmaking processes
translate that mark into other ways
versus it just being an absolute record
of the movement of the hand in that way.
So for drawers, lithography is a very
freeing type of drawing process
because it can be layered.
You can draw in black
and print it in green
or you can print it in blue or pink.
That level of freedom is
only present in printmaking
and that level of freedom with drawing,
a direct drawing process, is
only available in lithography.
Printmaking Workshop,
started in 1945 by Robert Blackburn.
Lithography was invented
for the purpose of
reproducing sheet music.
Instead of writing it once by hand
over and over and over and over,
Senefelder developed lithography
for the purpose of writing
that orchestral arrangement one time,
so it could be reproduced,
so that it could be sold
to multiple orchestras throughout cities
throughout all over Europe.
That's was its original intention.
When an artist gets
ahold of something that
allows you to work in a new way,
they will always take
those tools and materials
and use them for their
own artistic purposes.
That was the case for engraving.
It was the case for relief
printing or woodcut.
It's also the case for
digital printmaking now.
Lithography is based on
a very simple principle
that grease and water resist one another
and so what you'll see
is a balance of the plate
being dampened and then rolled over
with a greasy based ink.
It's the same as when
you're cleaning dishes.
If you've got a really greasy pan
and you fill it up with water,
you start putting water in it,
it starts to pull away from the grease.
The exact same thing is happening here
only it's very finely
controlled placed grease.
One of the things that
makes lithography so unique
is that it actually is
the most autographic
of like all the printmaking processes.
It captures the exact mark of the hand
that moves across that surface.
As a result, it gains the most clarity
from a drawer's perspective
from a direct point of view.
All the other printmaking processes
translate that mark into other ways
versus it just being an absolute record
of the movement of the hand in that way.
So for drawers, lithography is a very
freeing type of drawing process
because it can be layered.
You can draw in black
and print it in green
or you can print it in blue or pink.
That level of freedom is
only present in printmaking
and that level of freedom with drawing,
a direct drawing process, is
only available in lithography.
About this Video
Apr 22, 2026 Last updated
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