Building a Print Project Together With Other Artists

Printmaking has always been a conversation between hands, plates, and paper, and bringing another artist into that conversation changes the rhythm of the studio. Something looser, sometimes messier, almost always richer tends to come out of a shared project. Across Sydney, Melbourne, and a handful of regional centres, print rooms are quietly full of pairs and small groups trading notes, swapping inking techniques, and chasing editions that none of them could have produced alone.

Australia carries a long tradition of this kind of exchange. Community studios such as Megalo Print Studio in Canberra, the Centre for Print Research in Brisbane, and the Print Workshop in Melbourne have hosted countless joint editions over the years. Smaller artist-run outfits like the Sticky Institute in Melbourne and Sydney Printmakers keep the culture alive by sharing presses, contact lists, and mailing addresses, so finding a willing partner in another state has rarely been easier.

What makes a print collaboration genuinely different from a painting partnership is the layered decision-making. Each colour, each registration choice, and each proof pulled from the press carries the fingerprints of at least two people. The negotiation between those marks is where the work lives, and where most of the practical headaches appear as well.

Below is a working approach drawn from a mix of contracted and self-directed projects. It covers finding a partner, dividing the labour, sorting out paper and plates, keeping records, and making sure the finished edition lands somewhere it can be seen.

Finding Collaborators Beyond the Usual Circle

Most projects start with a simple question: who do you want to work with? The easiest option is often another artist whose practice you already know, but easier relationships can produce safer work. Looking outside the usual circles often pays off. A wet collodion photographer paired with a linocut specialist, for instance, can produce hybrid editions that neither could have imagined in isolation.

Australian print culture makes that kind of reach surprisingly easy. Most capital cities sit close to an open-access studio where cross-disciplinary practitioners gather, and regional towns are well represented too. The Royal South Australian Society of Arts in Adelaide, the Boom Gate Press crew in Hobart, and the printers who regularly set up stalls at the Finders Keepers markets in Brisbane are all open to a quick conversation. Events such as the Newcastle Printmaker Festival and the Square Pegs gathering in Castlemaine are natural places to swap contact details.

A studio visit beats a social media scroll every time. Watching someone ink a plate or coax a tint from a litho stone tells you within an hour whether your working rhythms are likely to align.

Sorting Out Who Does What Early

Once the instinct to work together is there, the practical work begins. One of the earliest conversations should be a frank discussion about roles. Is this a jointly authored edition in which every plate is signed by both artists? Or is one person the master printer and the other the image-maker, with credits reflecting a service relationship? Both are legitimate, and the distinction matters under Australia's Copyright Act 1968, which assigns authorship and economic rights to the people who contributed original expression.

A useful exercise is to map each stage of the process across two columns. Plate preparation, image transfer, inking, registration, pulling, trimming, numbering, and packing can all be listed, then split between the collaborators. Some stages work well as a duet. Pulling a print with two pairs of hands at the press often solves registration problems faster than one person can, and trimming a deckle edge together is a small pleasure.

It also helps to name a lead person who handles scheduling and another who handles the budget. Larger projects supported through bodies such as Creative Australia benefit enormously from a single point of contact for funding managers.

Setting Up the Studio and Materials

The studio you choose sets the tone. A neutral venue, such as a community access printroom or a university workshop like those at RMIT, the National Art School, or the South Australian School of Art, removes the home-turf advantage and encourages both artists to engage with the space as guests. It also gives you access to larger presses, vacuum tables, and exposure units that are difficult to justify for a single artist.

Materials need to be agreed in writing before the first proof is pulled. Paper choice causes more late-stage disagreements than any other variable, particularly when one artist prefers a soft Hahnemühle cotton rag and the other insists on a stiffer Magnani Incisioni. Ink brands, pigments, and edition sizes benefit from the same rigour. A short spreadsheet listing quantity, supplier, cost, and a backup option will save hours of cross-country phone calls when something is out of stock.

Edition numbers usually follow printroom convention: a small artist proof group, sometimes marked A/P, with the main edition signed and numbered in pencil below the image. Decide the format before the first print, not after the twentieth.

Agreeing on Rights, Money, and Credit

Money is rarely comfortable to discuss in the studio, but ignoring it leads to far harder conversations later. A simple written agreement covers four areas: who paid for what, how proceeds from sales are split, how the edition is divided if the collaboration ends, and what credit each artist receives in exhibitions and catalogues.

Under Australian Consumer Law, sellers of original prints must ensure any representation about authorship, provenance, or limited-edition status is accurate, so the agreement you sign becomes part of the seller's compliance paperwork. If either artist is selling through a commercial gallery, remember that commissions usually apply to the sale price rather than to either collaborator's share. GST registration may also be required once annual turnover crosses the threshold set by the Australian Taxation Office.

Credit should be agreed at the same time. Some collaborations list artists alphabetically, others by coin toss or by reference to whichever studio hosted the work. Whatever rule is chosen, write it down and apply it consistently, including on the certificate of authenticity that travels with each impression.

Communicating Through the Middle Weeks

The middle weeks of a print collaboration are when most projects wobble. One artist gets sick. The paper delivery is delayed. A plate reveals a flaw only after the second colour is down. The difference between a wobble and a wound usually comes down to communication habits.

Short, regular check-ins beat long, infrequent ones. A Friday afternoon note summarising what was achieved, what is next, and what is blocking progress keeps both parties informed without overload. Shared folders on cloud storage, version-controlled filenames, and a quick WhatsApp thread for snapshots of the latest proof all reduce confusion. When studios span state borders, factoring in the two-hour time difference between Perth and the east coast is surprisingly useful for scheduling.

Conflict is inevitable somewhere along the way. Healthiest collaborations treat disagreement as material rather than failure. If both artists feel strongly about a registration mark, pull three proofs and let the next session decide.

Showing, Documenting, and Following Up

A finished edition without an exhibition is a tree falling in an empty studio. Plan the showing or online release early, ideally before the first proof is pulled. Australian venues such as the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, the Sydney Contemporary fair, and a strong network of regional galleries often accept proposals six to twelve months in advance.

Documentation matters just as much as display. Photograph each final impression in raking light, keep high-resolution scans of every plate, and archive working proofs in labelled folders. For artists interested in the deeper lineage of the medium, the history of photogravure is worth a look, and Meg Turner has published an accessible primer the-history-of-photogravure-and on her site.

After the exhibitions close and editions are sold or stored, send a short summary to your collaborator covering what sold, where it went, and what to refine next time. A collaboration that ends with a clean handover is one that can easily turn into two or three more projects down the track.

If a shared print project has been quietly brewing, the best time to start is before you feel ready. Reach out to one artist whose work you admire, suggest a small test proof, and keep the scale manageable. Meg Turner's studio takes on contract printing for artists who want a master printer along for the ride, and her contact details are listed on the site for anyone ready to swap ideas over a flatbed press.