The Block

• You need a litho stone made of calcium carbonate or marble to make a lithograph. Professionals and art schools usually purchase calcium carbonate stones from special quarries in Germany's Bavarian region. Or, you can use a litho plate made from metal. The stone or metal material will serve as the base for the lithograph printing process.
  
  

Stone Grinding

• The surface of a stone must be ground to a flat surface before you can draw the image on it. A litho stone can be used over and over to make different prints if it is ground properly each time. In "The Complete Printmaker: Techniques, Traditions, Innovations," the authors note that "a smooth finish is suitable for fine-line pen or brushwork, while a rougher finish is good for crayon or larger brushstrokes."
  
  

Drawing an Image

• Whether you use a stone plate, or a plate made of metal, paper, linoleum or wood block, the next major step is to draw the image. You must use an oily material so that when the plate is washed with a special water solution -- the plate solution -- the ink will not wash away. In some lithographic techniques, you must trace the image onto the plate in reverse, such as with litho plates made of paper.
  
  

Inking the Plate

• After the image is ready, wet the image with a water-based material. The oily drawing material will resist the water. When you roll ink onto the plate, called inking the plate, the ink will only stick to the areas where you drew the image.
  
  

Printing From a Plate

• The final step is to print the inked plate onto special paper. You might have to make a few proofs first using a cheap paper like newsprint before you're ready to ink the final image onto good paper. You will print the paper by putting the plate inside a litho press. Pressure applied by the press transfers ink from the inked plate to paper. You can make multiple copies from the same plate by re-inking and printing a new set of prints.