Printmaking

I am taking a printmaking class this semester and I love it! For our first assignment we were told to make seven prints using the different techniques. Here are my seven:



These two prints are dry point. Take a copper plate, take an etching needle and scratch right into the plate. The harder you scratch, the deeper the burr is creating a darker fuzzier line. The first image didn't work very well, but the second one did.
Images: the first image is just a doodle from my sketchbook. The second contains sketches also from my sketchbook BUT way cooler. What I did was stare at people and draw their portrait without looking at the paper. The faces on there are 1. I don't remember who 2. Leslie 3. Eebs



These two prints are hard ground. Take a copper plate, sand and degrease it (so that when you put water on it it doesn't bead up), then pour a hard resin on it. It's floor wax. Once that is dry use the etching needle and scratch your image into the wax but not the copper. Then stick the plate in acid for a while. The longer it is in the acid the deeper and darker the line is etched. This creates a crisp, clean line. Images: The first image is the Barcelona chair designed by Mies Van der Rohe (one of my favorite architects). The second image is another from my sketchbook. It was a last minute print so I don't have any feelings for this print.



This technique is called soft ground. Sand and degrease your copper plate then roll a soft ground resin on it ... I'm not sure what it is. You put your copper plate on a hot plate and heat it up a bit. Once it's warm enough then you have a stick of the soft ground substance and it melts on like a crayon. You don't have to use much. Then you spread it out with a roller. Take your plate, place something on it (for the first I used string with knots tied in it, the second I used cardboard pony cutout pieces) and then roll it through the press. Etch the plate for about twenty-five minutes and voila! It is able to capture texture really well. Images: I already told you. The first is string- I think it gives the feeling of mountains but it's definitely open to interpretation. The second are cardboard pony pieces. The ones we used for the stampede on our living room wall.


The last technique we learned is Aquatint. Take your sand and degreased plate (it can have things etched in it if you want... I did that with the guitar print. I etched the lines in first and then I did the aquatint) and put a layer of rasin (chalky rasin that is used for string instruments but it's all ground up.) on it. We blow it around in this large box, put our plates in there, and let it settle on them. Then we heat the plates up and the rasin melts to it. Then we etch it in the acid. The longer it is in there, the darker the value is. This allows us to capture a solid value instead of only lines. We can also use a stop-out to stop the etching in some places while other places keep etching to be darker. Giving a range! I don't know if that made any sense. Image: It's Chris. I tried scraping back some of the face which allows it to be lighter again, but I didn't do a very good job. I am going to go back and scrape some more to give his face more depth.