PRINT MAKING

IN
THE
PHILIPPINES

Early Filipinos, like those in the

West use their occupation as
their last names. If the father is
a blacksmith, he will probably
use panday; a carpenter adopt
anluwage, and so on.

TOMAS PINPIN

The first Filipino priter's occupation is

placing and arranging the wooden block
tiles for printing in a frame that is why he
is called Tomas na Taga-Pinpin in a
tagalog or in short Tomas Pinpin. He's
companion Domingo Loag is Taga-Luwag
or the one who dissassembles the frame to
allow the arranger to assemble newset of
the text for printing.

After 1607, less

Chinese were hired t

do the printing for
the Spaniards, and

they gave the job to

an Indio, Tomas
Pinpin, who printed
14 books and
authored a book,

The begginings of printmaking

can be seen in our clay pots
dating as far back as 2000 BCE,
which were in printed which the
texture and the shapes of cord,
shells, stones or textiles.

The earliest attempt of te

Filipinos in printmaking could be
gleaned from the fragment of
historical document unearthed
in the river banks of Lumban in
Laguna. This document is
unique for unlike the other
documents of the time, it was
carefully etched in a thin sheet
of copper using a pointed stylus

To aid th spread of the Roman Catholic

faith, the spaniards used printing to make
copies of books, novenas, sermons and
devotional pamphlets.

1593- the dominican order established

and began printing of the books.

Doctrina christiana en Lengua Espanola y

tagala- The first book published in the
philipines used a wood block printing
technique and done in Tondo

Another print maker of note:

Nicolas Cruz Bagay- who was engraver, and a

magnficent artists for his drawings which he
engraved.
Carta hydrografica y choragraphica de las
Yslas Filipinas- notable engravings of Nicolas
Cruz Bagay map of the Philippines.
He did 50 artistic prints in his lifetime and he
was proud of the quality of his work so he
insisted in sighning his name on each print he
made.

Manuel Rodriguez Sr.

Father of printmaking in the

philippines for he thought printmaking
in his home and encourage many of
the present print makers to pursue
the meduim.Many painters made
prints like Botong Francisco, Romeo
Tabuena,Vicente Manansala, Fernando
Zobel, Anita Magsaysay Ho, Arthuro
Luz, Jose Joya and Romolo Olazo.

Other artist concentrate

in printmaking:

Rod Paras Perez

Pandy Aviado

Brenda Fajardo

Ofelia Gelvezontequi

BenCab

Fil Dela Cruz

Santo Bose

Neil Doloricon

Jonathan Olazo

Printmaking

Is an art of transferring printed images

from a surface. A print is a hand
produced picture that has been
tranferred from a printing surface to a
paper.

It encompasses reproductions or
multiplies made directly from the same
block, plate stone, or screen created by
the artist.

Edition- number of prints are

limited by the artist such as

100/1000 which means the copy is
100th in an edition of 1000. once the
last print of the edition is complete,
the printing surface is destroyed.

Three broad categories of

printmaking according to
surface;
Relief printing- uses woodcut,wood
engraving, rubber stamps, and linoleum cut.
Intaglio- includes etching, aquatint and dry
point.
Planographic process- that includes
lithography, silk screen (serigraphy) and
other forms of stenciling.

Other type of print making

outside these three areas;
Collography- print making technique in
which textured materiasl is adhered to a
printing matrixwhich is tranferred on the
paper during the prining process.
Vircocity printing and contemporary
printmaking that includes digital
printing,photograhic mediums or a
combination of other printaking tecniques.

Relief Printing

Woodcut printing is the earliest form of relief

printing. The image is directly drawn to the wood
surface then the artist removes the backgrouns
around the image ot the non-image areas known
as the negatives. The curved blocked is the inked
using roller. The uncut background receieves the
ink and makes imperssion on the paper.

Color can be made using woodcuts but each

color will need a seperate block.

Proper registration or exact transferring of color

is needed so that the entire work will not be
ruined.

Wood cut- is the only

traditional printing technique
used in Asia for centuries.
This technique was used by
the Europeans too.

Wood engraving technique

Similar to wood block printing, however, it

uses the endgrain on blocks of the hard
wood. The endgrain is very hard so the
metal tool designed for carving is needed to
make very fine and intricate details.

Unlike the wood block it can produced many

prints before it deteriorates that makes it
ideal technique for book illustrations.

Intaglio
In the intaglio printing what is removed
in the plate ends up to be printed.
The lines are cut in the surface of a metal
plate using a sharp tool called burin or
using acids.
If you see a wedding invitation with
raised texts, it probably underwent th
intaglio process because it happened
when the pressure was exerted to allow

Line engraving

The most difficult and most demanding

intaglio process is ine engraving. It is
done by cutting grooves into the metal
plate with special sharp tools and
requires great muscular control because
the pressure must be continuous and
constant if the grooves are to produce
the desired image.

Etching

The artist removes the surface of

the plate by exposing it to an
acid bath. A wax coating, or
ground that resist acid, is applied
first on the surface of the metal.

Engraving

It was introduced by the spaniards in the

Philippines.

In 1733, Nicholas Bagay, a printing press

owner , and Francisco Suarez designed a
series of 12 artworks were they proudly
sighned with Indio Tagalo.

Oldest form of intaglio. Burins or any sharp

instruments that could leave depression or
marks onn the metal can be sed to make a
metal plate to reproduce prints.

Aquatints

Are tonal areas made by applying powdered

resin to a plate then heated. The melted resin
produces particles that become dots. Eacd dot
resist acid. Like in the etching the longer the
metal plate is exposed in the acid bath, the
darker is the tone is the final print.

Dry point

In this technique, surface of

metal plate is scratched with a
needle. Unlike the lin engraving
which gives a clean, sharp line
the dry point leaves a ridge
called a burr on either side of
the groove resulting to a

Planographic
Process

The artist prints from a plane surface unlike

in the intaglio and relief printing.

Lithography- one of the planographic

process, which is based on the idea that
water and grease do not mix.

Silk screen or serigraph-the most

popular stenciling process and the newest
inexpensive printmaking.