A Comparison of How Serigraphs and Lithographs Are Created

An executive management professional residing in Los Angeles, California, Julia Cominos serves clients as a strategist and business development consultant. In her former role as the managing director of Joie de Vie, LLC, Julia Cominos ensured the success of a retail fine art partnership between Cirque du Soleil and MGM. In this role, she oversaw the launch of atelier works, sculptural editions, books, exhibition catalogs, serigraphs, and lithographs.

Although serigraphs and lithographs are both types of reproduced art, they differ from one another in several ways. Lithographs are produced using oil, wax or fat to create a picture on a base of aluminum or polished limestone. A mixture of Arabic gum and acid is used to treat the stone which causes etching in areas of the stone uncovered by the oil-based image. 

When the stone is moistened with water, the etched areas retain the water but will repel oil. An oily ink is subsequently applied to the entire surface area which only adheres to the drawing, thus permitting a printed image to be created by transferring the ink to blank paper.

Once referred to as screen prints, serigraphs are made using materials such as steel, nylon, and polyester mesh. Similar to making a stencil, the mesh material is pulled tight and portions of it are covered before an ink is applied over the entire surface of the mesh. Ink is used to create a design or print as it only passes through the uncovered parts of the mesh.