WHAT’S AN ETCHING?

     Although prints from metal plates are commonly called etchings, the more inclusive term is intaglio, which includes several techniques, etching among them. Basically a line or texture which holds ink is imposed on the surface of the plate and the plate is then liberally coated with ink. When excess ink is removed by wiping with a cloth, the remaining image is transferred to paper under the high pressure of an etching press. This is an intaglio print.

     There are numerous ways to create the lines and textures. When acid is used the process is called etching, but there are several other, non-acid methods, including engraving, drypoint and mezzotint.

     With ENGRAVING, a sharp, steel point or burin is forced forward across the metal to produce incised lines. This method was probably developed by armorers in Mediaeval times. They used burins to carve designs in the armor, and when paper arrived in Europe, they soon began inking the patterns and pulling prints from them so they could travel with practical examples of their work. A bundle of paper patterns was easier to carry than a whole suit of armor. In the Fifteenth Century, pioneering artists such as Durer, Schongauer and Lucas van Leyden began using the technique to make artistic prints.

     With DRYPOINT a steel or diamond point needle is dragged across the metal. This not only creates an incised line but also raises a ridge of metal on each side of the incision, giving the print a soft, organic quality. The force used with the needle controls the depth of the line and its value. The deeper the line the darker its value.

     The disadvantage of drypoint is that the ridge of metal does not stand up well to the pressure of the press, thus limiting the number of prints that can be pulled from the plate.

     A MEZZOTINT, another non-acid method, calls for a fine, sandpaper-like surface on the plate. Although there are now machines that put this texture on a plate, it is usually done with a hand tool called a rocker. The rocker has a toothed edge that raises a series of burrs as the tool makes its transit across the plate. After many transits made in several different directions, an even texture is created on the plate. If untouched, this texture will print a dense black. The image is imposed on this black field with burnishers and scrapers. It is a reduction process. Use of the tools reduces the ink-holding ability of the rocked surface. Through control of pressure and repetitions with the reduction tools, the artist can produce all the intermediate values from black to white.

     The disadvantage of mezzotint is that much time must be spent preparing the plate. It could take two to four hours to rock a 2 by 3-inch plate. Larger plates may require twenty to thirty hours.

     When acid is used for an ETCHING, the plate must first be given a thin coating that will protect the metal in the acid bath. This is commonly called a stop-out varnish. When the varnish dries, a needle is used to draw the image. The needle bares the metal and exposes the lines to acid. Values are controlled by time. The longer the plate is in the acid the deeper the bite and the darker the lines.

     There are two kinds of stop-out varnish - hard and soft. A hard varnish, once it dries is not tacky, but a soft varnish, usually made by adding beeswax, remains tacking even after it dries.

     This tacky surface responds to anything pressed on the plate, including lines drawn on an overlying paper. Patterns of cloth, leaves or other textures can also be imposed on the plate. Again, values are controlled by the length of time in the acid bath.

     An AQUATINT, developed by the French as a means of matching the appearance of a watercolor painting, puts a fine texture on the plate by using powdered rosin. The powder is allowed to settle evenly in an enclosed environment known as a dust box. The plate is then heated enough to melt the dust particles. These microscopic particles of melted rosin resist acid, but the spaces between them are exposed and are thus bitten to create a fine texture. Again, time in the acid determines values, and the image is created with liquid stop-out varnish, applied to those parts of the plate where the action of the acid is not wanted.

     Complicating all this is the common practice for printers to combine two or more methods. Very pleasing results can be achieved, for instance, by combining soft-ground etching with the aquatint technique. And dry-point and aquatint are also frequently used on the same plate.

     All intaglio prints, however, usually have one thing in common – they are part of an edition. Editions can run from five or ten prints to two or three hundred. Each print is numbered accordingly. The numbers 3/50, for instance, means that the print is number three in an edition of fifty.

     All prints shown on this site are intaglio prints, but there are other methods of producing editions. The RELIEF method – the woodcut or block print - developed by the Chinese, is certainly the oldest. Here, the white space in an image, is carved away and the ink is rolled onto the remaining surfaces.

     In LITHOGRAPHY the surface of a stone or metal is treated so that a drawing will hold ink while the untouched surface repels it. In STENCIL printing, such as a silk screen, the image is cut from a matrix and the ink is applied through it.

     And once again, even these basic methods can be combined for an infinite variety of printmaking techniques. So, if you see a print and cannot tell how it was made, ask.