An entry · Work · Life
Printmaker
Ink, a screen, a steady pull, and one image becomes a hundred, each pressed by hand.
From curious to committed
Your first steps.
A first visit can be enough. It can also be the beginning.
Meet the craft
Take a one-day class at a local print studio and go home with prints you pulled yourself.
Explore experiences →Give it another afternoon
Notice what you want to come back to. Ask the teacher what regular practice would look like, and what support you would need.
Keep a note for next time →See the working day
Learn screen or relief printing at an art school, print studio, or community press that teaches the full process hands-on.
Explore ways into the work →These are starting points. A workshop is not a professional qualification. Entry requirements and recognised training depend on the work and the country.
Before you walk in
A few things worth asking the host before you book.
- Is this session suitable for someone who has never tried it?
- What should I bring, wear or prepare?
- What is included, and are there any extra costs?
- Can you accommodate my access needs?
- What could I try next if I enjoy it?
Teach this craft? Share what beginners ask you →
Work it
Do the work.
Jobs, apprenticeships, and training that put a person in the room.
Places to begin
- Association
The Boston Printmakers
Membership
Boston, Massachusetts
Printmakers across North America can apply to join this juried professional alliance for exhibitions, scholarships, and residency opportunities.
- Association
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers
Annual Open Exhibition
London, United Kingdom
Printmakers can submit work to this society's annual open show at Bankside Gallery, a route toward joining Britain's leading printmakers.
- Apprenticeship
The Adachi Foundation For the Preservation of Woodcut Printing
Advanced Skills Training Program for future artisans
Tokyo, Japan · One or two trainees a year, with a summer internship first
Digital printing thinned the trade, so the foundation takes on one or two people a year and teaches them to carve and print ukiyo-e.
- Membership
Thames-Side Print Studio
Induction and open access at one of London's largest print studios
Woolwich, London
Take the induction, then work the screenprint, etching, offset litho and relief presses as a keyholder, by the session or by the day.
- Course
Ecole Estienne
Engraving and intaglio printing at Ecole Estienne
Paris, France
The same school gathers its engraving and printing routes on one page, from the initial diplomas to adult retraining through the GRETA.
Ways in
- Course
Printmaking course or workshop series
Learn screen or relief printing at an art school, print studio, or community press that teaches the full process hands-on.
- Guild
Time in a shared print studio
Join an open-access print workshop, where members share presses and skills and you build fluency over many sessions.
- Entry job
Assist a working print shop
Start as a shop hand pulling editions and reclaiming screens to learn production standards from experienced printers.
Ways in, gathered by hand.
Add yours to the atlasLive it
Live the hour.
Experiences, classes, and places where the presence is the whole point.
Places to begin
Chicago1 place
Explore the Chicago guideMinneapolis1 place
Explore the Minneapolis guideCork1 place
Explore the Cork guideKyoto1 place
Explore the Kyoto guideLondon2 places
Explore the London guide- Workshop
Print Club London
Screenprinting Workshops
You can spend a day or two learning to screenprint from scratch at this much loved East London print studio.
- Course
East London Printmakers
Beginner printmaking courses at an artist run studio
Wednesdays, daytime and evening
Lino, screenprint, etching, Japanese woodblock and kitchen lithography taught to a maximum of eight people, materials included, by printmakers who work in the studio themselves.
Paris3 places
Explore the Paris guide- Course
Paris Ateliers
Drypoint, etching and aquatint at the press
99 hours across the year, no prerequisites
Copper, acid and a press, taught from scratch across three studios in the city, with relief printing on wood and lino alongside the intaglio techniques.
- Course
GRETA CDMA
Intaglio printmaking week at École Estienne
One week, 38 hours
Five days of engraving and printing on intaglio presses at École Estienne, in a group of seven to nine, open to anyone.
- Class
Atelier 3113
Intaglio engraving with a painter-printmaker
A 4 hour discovery or an 18 hour course, dates arranged
Drypoint, etching and aquatint on zinc and copper, taught one to one by the artist Aga Werner in her 13e studio, pulling your own prints on the press.
Ways in
- Workshop
Intro screen or lino printing workshop
Take a one-day class at a local print studio and go home with prints you pulled yourself.
- Visit
Open-studio print day
Visit a community press on an open day to try a press and meet the makers who run it.
Ways in, gathered by hand.
Add yours to the atlasWhy the human is the point
A printmaker builds an image in reverse, then coaxes it onto paper one pull at a time. Screen printing and relief both reward patience: cut the block or burn the screen, mix the ink, register the paper, and pull with exactly the right pressure so the print lands crisp. No two impressions are identical, and a maker learns to read each one, adjusting the squeegee or the inking until the run sings. It is a craft of the whole body and a good eye, the arm doing the work while the mind judges the result. Hold a hand-pulled print up to the light and you can feel where a person leaned in. The printmaker turns a single idea into something you can hold, and share.
Kept nearby
