intaglio
INTAGLIO printing involves cutting, rocking, or chemically etching an image into a plate, inking the plate, then transferring the image to dampened paper.
There is a matrix or plate to hold an image. The plates are traditionally made of copper however today many different substraites are utilized.
The matrix or plate is inked with a roller, brayer, or a card. The printmaking is pushing ink down into the lines.
The surface of the plate is then polished by hand or with phonebook paper.
The matrix or plate and the dampened paper are pressed together using an etching press.
The ink in the grooves becomes the image on the paper.
There may be extra ink on the flat surfaces left for effect.
The subcategories of INTAGLIO are ENGRAVING, DRYPOINT, MEZZOTINT, ETCHING, and AQUATINT.
ENGRAVING
Engraving is created by
- Cutting or incising lines into a copper, zinc, or steel plate using a tool called a burin
- Applying pressure-sensitive pushes and cuts into the plate that result in deeper or wider lines in the print
- Inking the plate, forcing the ink into the grooves
- Pressing the inked plate and dampened paper together under pressure, which causes the cut lines to become inked lines in the final image
drypoint
Drypoint involves an image drawn or scraped directly on a plate with a sharp, pointed, needle-like tool
- Often copper plates are used in drypoint, yet plastic plates are a low-budget current alternative
- When scraping with the needle-like tool, a burr, or ragged piece of metal is pushed up
- When ink that has been applied to the plate, the burr receive ink underneath its edges
- Therefore, softened, ragged lines with character result in the final print, when the plate and paper are pressed together
MEZZOTINT
Mezzotint comes from the Italian word meaning “half tint” and its process involves
- Working the entire plate with a hatcher or rocker, creating thousands of tiny pits all over the surface
- Polishing and smoothing the areas that are to be light or bright
- Inking the plate such that the deepest pits receive the most ink
- Pressing the inked, pockmarked plate together with the paper, as more dense, pitted areas on the plate yield darker print areas
ETCHING
Etching involves a chemical process within the following steps
- A metal plate is covered with an acid resist and a liquid like wax or resin
- Once dry, the artist lightly scratches this surface off with a needle
- Then the plate is put in a chemical acid, ferric chloride, which eats away the areas exposed during the drawing process, deepening the lines depending on how long they are left in the acid
- To achieve tonal variation lines can be blocked out with more acid resist and put back into the acid so that other lines etch darker
- The plate is pressed with the dampened paper, often with a large, mechanical etching press, and the paper is pushed down into the etched grooves of the plate to receive the ink
aquatint
The aquatint process involves
- Coating a clean metal plate evenly with a fine powder of acid-resistant resin
- Heating the plate in order to make the resin melt and stick to the plate leaving microscopic dots of exposed plate
- Acid resist or Sharpie marker can be used to protect the plate as it takes multiple baths in the acid to achieve tonal gradations
- Inking the plate, pressing the dampened paper and the plate together
- Refined, interesting, non-linear patterns result in the final print
- Aquatint is often combined with other printmaking processes
aquatinT: Spit Bite
A spit bite involves painting acid directly onto a plate treated with resin.
This gives the artists a more painterly approach or application.
References
Wellcome Collection. EPB / D 41392/D Piso, Willem (1611-1678) W. Piso, 'De Indiae Utriusque Re Naturali et Medica libri quatuordecim... Amstelaedami : Apud Ludovicum et Danielem Elzevirios, 1658 p. 298, engraving of a Cururu (frog)
(da) Gammel mand med hvid ulden hue, en face - https://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/2020903/KKS7686.html. Frans Schwartz. Statens Museum for Kunst. CC0 - http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/drypoint