Yes, great idea for multi-plate lithos! These are definitely more difficult to do by hand, but I found it's not impossible. Happy Printing!

Thank you for watching!

Thank you for your suggestion! I've used french chalk, which is the same thing, but unscented. When I made this for students I presumed they might not have that on hand, but of course many might have baby powder. So thank you for adding that, and may it help others in their pronto plate printing quests!

Hi Mia! I have not attempted to print a ball-grained litho plate by hand rather than by press. I imagine without the full traditional Tapem etching and roll-up and second etch processes, it may be an unstable, impermanent image in the plate which could either fade, or non-image areas may fill in quickly, similar to how pronto plates are. Given the expense, I personally would want to use the proper press and process for a plate, but if that's all you have plate-wise and press-wise during this quarantine time, I don't think it would hurt to try! That oil and water can't mix as the basis of this process, I imagine it could work for a while, but as I said, like pronto plate printing or wood lithography, without establishing the image through etching, it may not last long.

There are videos out there by others on "kitchen sink lithography" or "kitchen lithography", doing a similar process to polyester plates that use tin foil as this matrix and soda, vinegar, or soy sauce to etch, which I would recommend checking out. Happy Printing!

@@Chcole88 thanks for this! The plate I have is an aluminium plate with the image already on it. That's all I have plate and press wise so hopefully, it should work. Thanks again!

@@gone96 Great question! The plate is reusable up until the point it may start to break down. Sometimes the physical drawing materials may start to wear off especially if one doesn’t etch it into the plate or if using a laser printer the toner particles tend start to wear off (I’ll often print a couple copies of a design to plates if I want to print more than 10 impressions at a time for the laser toner prints) But I’ve used plates over 20 times for ballpoint pen especially and then I’ve also reused used the back sides of double sided plates but accepted the inks and fingerprints on it. Often cleaning the ink off will damage the plate so usually I will strip as much ink as I can off by running it through the press with clean newsprint a couple times and ink it up in the new color, and several of the next impressions will gradually transition to the newer color as there may be some of the old ink still embedded in the plate. I found it’s a fun way to print a variable edition especially if I transition from one color to a contrasting color in value or saturation.

Hi @N H! With the pronto plates, you can hand-draw an image using the litho crayons and other greasy materials I mention, but as they also come in standard sizes, you can print an image directly onto the pronto plate with a laser printer or xerox toner photocopier or printer (not inkjet) and you ink it up and print it just like I show in the video. The pronto plates are also semi-transparent, so one could overlap the plate with a reference image or drawing and use a window, lightbox, or fully bright lit-up white page on a tablet to see the image for tracing or using the reference image as a guide for your drawing. Some artists I know do a version of lithography similar to what you mention called "paper lithography" by printing a laser printed image on a piece of cardstock and inking it up like a traditional lithograph, minus the etching and roll-up processes. They don't last very long but they're good for a few variable prints. I personally haven't experimented with it transferring a photocopy to the pronto plate, like one could with a laser/toner photocopy to a traditional lithography stone or plate with lacquer thinner or acetone or wintergreen oil (all not great to breathe in) or those chartpak transfer markers. So it might be possible to transfer a photocopy to a pronto plate, but I haven't tried it yet.

@@Chcole88 Thanks so much Catherine for you swift and thorough reply. I will buy some plates ( 'polyester litho plates' here in the UK) and give them a whirl. I appreciate your words and advice. Should you ever feel the need to experiment with multicolour pronto plate printing please don't hesitate to share with us! Haha Subbed in thanks :)

Hi Ivan- I used an oil based ink- either an etching ink or Lithography ink. During the pandemic it may have just been etching ink. If I have it on hand, I add setswell compound or easy wipe to reduce the tack of inks especially when using printer toner based images. And for color litho or offset inks I add magnesium carbonate to stiffen it so it sits in a pile on my ink slab without spreading. Do not use one of the oil-based water miscible printmaking inks on the market, such as Cranfield Caligo inks or the newer Speedball Professional water soluble oil based inks- I’ve watched students panic when they saw their images start to smear and fill in only to discover they were using one of those inks! Fine for etching, not for litho!

Hi there! Thank you for your question. I was using it as a way to gently scrub away scumming, in which ink starts building up or sticking in areas that are not part of the drawn image area. With stone lithography, I may use a snake slip for this purpose, but in my experience with the polyester plates, snake slips or scrubbing too hard with toothpaste usually scuffs up or scores the plate and causes even more ink to stick to the non-images areas I want to stay clean. So toothpaste is optional and can help with troubleshooting issues with scumming, but if scrubbed too hard it can further add to the very issue one is trying to resolve. Hope that answer helps! Thanks for watching!

@@Chcole88 Thanks! I just clean it up my finges XD but in the next print they come back. If you etch the plate with gum arabic afther clean it up, the scumming and the other problems, like ink sticking in clean areas, stop.