Today lithography is used commercially to print newspapers, magazines, books, posters and labels. Disposable aluminum plates with photo-sensitive emulsion are used to make thousands of reproductions quickly and cheaply.
A few artists still use Bavarian limestone and hand-cranked presses to produce small numbers of original prints. These prints are called lithographs, but as a poster of Britney Spears that you buy on Amazon is also a lithograph, we call hand-drawn and hand printed lithographs fine art lithographs or original prints.
Because many painters have lithographic reproductions made of their paintings, drawings and sketches, it is important to distinguish between images conceived and created as a print, and those images that are reproductions of another artwork.
An original print is an original artwork in multiple. It is drawn on a stone or etched on a plate and printed on paper, usually by the artist. The printed paper is the original, although there may be 100 of them.
A reproduction is an image that was originally a drawing, a painting or a photograph, and was reproduced using photolithography or inkjet printers. This is not an original work of art, even if it is a "limited edition" or a "signed print". If was originally a painting or a drawing, it is a copy. If it was originally drawn or etched on a stone or a plate, it is an original print.
These are subtle but important distinctions, which affect the commercial and aesthetic value of the artwork. All prints on this website are original prints, hand-drawn and hand-printed by the artist.
