#lithographic

VAGRANT SUN PROXY ART

To be featured in this year's MAJOR RELEASE:

"Vagrant Sun; a TTRPG" 🎲

CORRECTION: KICK YOUR SHOES OFF, THEN, ENJOY YOUR GUINNESS STOUT ACCORDINGLY.

PIC(S) INFO: Resolution at 2138x2880 -- Spotlight on a Guinness Dry Irish Stout lithographic poster design titled "After Work Guinness," artwork by British illustrator, Tom Eckersley (1914-1997), c. 1950. Printed by Mills & Rockleys, Impswich.

PIC#2: Resolution at 736x1111 -- The same poster deign without the poster folds.

EXTRA INFO: The design features a man in red and pink peeking between his shoes, while enjoying his Guinness; lettering in red and black. Estimated worth at $800 to $1,200.

Lithographic limestone

Most of us know that rocks and minerals have played a role as the star material in many art forms, including jewellery making, sculpture, pottery, as well as their use as pigments. But did you know that they are also used behind the scenes?

Lithography is an oil-based printmaking technique that relies on the immiscibility of water and oil. It originated during the 18th century as a way to cheaply print theatrical works. The technique derives its name from the lithographic limestone that was originally used as the etching surface. After the image is chemically "burned" into the stone surface, it creates alternate hydrophillic (water-attractant) and hydrophobic (water-repellent) areas. The hydrophobic areas are what the oil-based ink "sticks" to. After inking, the image is printed with the aid of a press.

Nowadays, mass printing uses polymer-coated metal plates (as part of the offset lithography process), however some fine artists still insist on using limestone to create artworks. The first image shows the limestone slab with the individual layers required to produce a composite image (each would be inked with a different colour), while the second shows an amazingly complex print created with this process.

Lithographic limestone is a hard, homogenous, fine-grained, defect-free type of stone used in the creation of lithographic prints. In geology, lithographic texture refers to a grain size > 1/250 mm.

This type of limestone is formed in shallow, hypersaline, stagnant, anoxic conditions which prevent the sediments from becoming disturbed by benthic (sea-floor dwelling) organisms, growths of microbial mats (algae and bacteria), as well as wave action, allowing it to remain homogenous.

The first quarries of lithographic limestone were found in Solnhofen, and for many years, were the only source of this material until similar rocks were discovered and quarried near Montdardier in France. Solnhofen is also very famous for the high quality fossils it preserves (see the past article by TES linked below). Both deposits were Jurassic in origin, although the French limestone was deposited earlier (200-1800 mya) than the German (155 mya). The USA also began quarrying lithographic limestone around the same time (1868) as its European counterparts. Sadly, once metal plate printing came into effect c. 1918, the quarries were shut down or used for the production of crushed rock.

YK

Past articles: Solnhofen Limestone – http://on.fb.me/13LTAdi

Image credit: Lithographic Stone for Anchor Manilla Tropical Gum and Moseleys Air Mail envelopes. Finished label shown. © Edinburgh City of Print, 2009 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lithographic_stone_for_Anchor_Manilla_Tropical_Gum.jpg). Used under creative commons licensing. “The Custer Fight” by George Marion Russell, 1903 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Marion_Russell_-The_Custer_Fight%281903%29.jpg). Used under public domain license.