How is a lithograph made?
Alois Senefelder first discovered this method of print in 1798, and Goya was probably one of the first artists to make truly memorable use of it. The principle of lithography is the natural repulsion of oil and water. When an image is drawn on a plate with a greasy substance, a special pencil or crayon, or painted with a brush using grease base ink, the plate, which has been suitably prepared, will absorb water everywhere except where the image has been drawn or painted. When the ink is subsequently rolled onto the plate the areas with the image retain the oil-based ink. Thus when the paper is placed on the plate, and burnished across the back, the ink offsets onto the paper, printing the artists original image. Since only one color is printed from each plate, it is not unusual for fine lithographs to be printed from 15 or more plates.
