Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The difference is in the use of tools, and that the raised ridge along the furrow is not scraped or filed away as in engraving. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used. Like etching, drypoint is easier to master than engraving for an artist trained in drawing because the technique of using the needle is closer to using a pencil than the engraver's burin.
Mary Cassatt, Woman Bathing, drypoint combined with aquatint, 1890–01
Stanisław Masłowski, ca 1905, Portrait of Artist's Wife, drypoint, 11.5x7.7 cm, National Museum in Warsaw
Image: Lesser Ury Dame im Kaffee
Image: E.T. Daniell Surlingham Ferry looking towards Norwich
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ; however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph.
Katsushika Hokusai The Underwave off Kanagawa, 1829/1833, color woodcut, Rijksmuseum Collection
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, etching, c. 1630
Francisco Goya, There is No One To Help Them, Disasters of War series, aquatint c. 1810
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Portrait of Otto Müller, 1915