DrypointEtchingAquatintThe MordantPrinting the Plate:Printing the Plate:Using Imagon Film to make an Intaglio Type PrintDo these things first:Plate Preparation:For a new plate:For a previously used plate:Cutting the Imagon Ultra Film:Laminating the Film to the Plate:Exposing the Plate:Developing the Plate:Printing the Plate:Health and Safety in the Printmaking StudioAcids: wear rubber gloves and use acid spill kit kept on top of yellowSecurity in the Printmaking Studios:Etching and IntaglioArt 3140 Christie NuellTable of ContentsAn Overview of Intaglio Techniques 3Drypoint 5Printing the Plate 5Making a Template for Printing 7Hard Ground (Acrylic, Ball, Liquid) 8Aquatint 12Soft Ground 14Imagon ™ Intaglio Type 15Health & Safety in the Printmaking Studio 18A Printmakers Bibliography 20ETCHING ART 3140 Handouts 2. 1/13/19An Overview of the Intaglio ProcessesEtching, Drypoint and Aquatint are some of the more common techniques of the Intaglio printmaking process. In each case, grooves or pits are made on a sheet of metal. These grooves or pits are then filled with ink, and the surface of the plate is polished clean. When the proof is pulled on an etching press, the image is transferred from the plate to a piece of paper. Many identical proofs can be pulled from a single plate, forming an edition. Many printmakers like to use a number of different techniques on the same plate.DrypointDrypoint is very basic. The artist simply scratches the image onto the plate with the etching needle or stylus. No mordant is involved. It can be difficult to control the needle on the slick metal surface. The metal forms a ridge along one side of the scratched lines as the artist draws. This gives a fuzzy look to the lines when the plate is printed. Going through the press many times, the pressure of the roller on the press forces the ridgeback down into the grooves. The result is that the image gets paler and paler.EtchingEtching uses a mordant (such as an acid or other corrosive liquid) to create deep lines in the sheet of metal. The artist applies a mordant resistant ground to the plate in a thin, even layer, and then draws the image on the plate. The stylus or etching needle removes the ground wherever theartist has drawn, exposing the metal. When the plate is immersed in the mordant, the metal is eaten away and the lines deepen. Lines etched for a long time are deeper and hold more ink than lines etched for a short time. This means that they print darker onto the paper. There are different kinds of grounds, both liquid and solid. They can give different looks to the line, or be used with different mordants.AquatintThe Aquatint is a special technique, because unlike the other processes it can create areas of solidtone without having to mass lines together or crosshatch. Here the ground is put on in a granular form or as a mist. It adheres to the plate, and the mordant eats away the tiny areas between the ground. It is very important to get exactly the right size of particles of ground with the proper amount of space between them (about 50% of each). Traditionally artists used to use powdered rosin or asphaltum as the ground for their aquatint. These are no longer considered safe, so the example here shows the use of an airbrush to apply an acrylic aquatint ground. Often the artist uses the length of time in the mordant to control the value of the aquatint. In the example shown, the lightest gray was etched for 3 minutes, and the black was etched for 2.5 hours. The artist stops out, or covers up with ground, the lighter grays to preserve them while the darker ones are being etched. The stop out can be a liquid or a solid, depending on whether you want a hard edgeor a soft edge. Another way to create lighter values is to scrape and burnish them. This makes the tiny pits in the metal shallower, so that they hold less ink and print lighter values.EngravingAn engraver uses a special tool called a burin to incise the image into the plate. This tool actually removes the metal as it cuts, unlike drypoint, creating thin spirals of metal that look likewood shavings which are brushed away. The burin has a diamond shaped tip, and the groove it ETCHING ART 3140 Handouts 3. 1/13/19creates has a V shape. Characteristics of engraving are that it produces a very clean line. It is labor intensive and is not very popular with printmakers today.MezzotintA mezzotint rocker is a special tool with hard steel ridges. By rocking it across the plate continuously in different directions, the surface of the plate is made very rough. In fact if it were to be inked and printed, it would be a solid, velvety black. The artist uses this plate as a starting point, and uses a burnisher to smooth out the rough surface of the plate to produce lighter tones, or even whites. It is like drawing on black paper with a white pencil or conte crayon. Mezzoting is great for images which have very dark backgrounds, but preparing the plate can take weeks.The MordantWhistler used to make a little wax wall around the edge of his etching plate and pour acid directly onto the plate to etch his lines. To avoid spilling acids and breathing their harmful fumes,artists have discovered safer ways of working over the last century. These copper plates were etched in ferric chloride (a corrosive salt with no fumes). The bath of mordant is in a vertical etching tank to minimize evaporation and to best handle the way the ferric chloride eats away thecopper. Printing the Plate:The paper for the print is made of cotton fibers, which give it enough strength to be forced down onto the plate under the pressure of the press, producing a rich image. First the paper is soaked inclean water, to give it flexibility.The artist removes any unwanted ground that remains on the plate. While the paper is soaking, the artist inks the plate. The procedure is the same for all three of these intaglio processes. Etching ink is forced down into all the grooves and pits on the plate. Then a tarlatan (starched cheesecloth) is used to carefully polish the surface of the plate while leaving ink in all the etched areas. When the inking is complete, the image is clearly visible on the plate.Printing the Plate:All intaglio prints are printed on an etching press. The press has a bed on which the inked plate isplaced, face up. Excess water is removed from the paper, and the damp sheet is placed face downon the plate. Etching blankets are placed on top of the paper and plate, to