Aquatint: The Process

Ok, so a little visual background for all the verbage on the last entry. This was my workspace today. Decided to rework my first 2 aquatints Starry Night & Night Sky with Tree, so I thought I'd show a bit of the process. What I wanted to do essentially, was to darken the sky a bit & add a bit more detail to the mountain scene. To do this, you kinda have to start over. You cover the areas you don't want to etch with a hard ground & let it dry. Then you start your aquatint process over. The aquatint is a latex/h2o based spray that is sprayed lightly over the plate to keep only small ( & hopefully even) portions of the plate from etching when it is placed in the acid. If you remember, this process is then repeated 5 times... so- spray, etch, spray, etch & so on.

Once the plate is placed in the acid bath, you've got 20-25 minutes to work on other projects (there's always something to do)... or go grab coffee. I like to manage my time to do both :)



I know what you're thinking now- just print it! Oh, were it so simple. Now you've got to clean up all the built up junk that you covered your plate with first... and let me tell you, that stuff can be stubborn! I skipped that part in the visual... didn't want to bore you too much! Now, the printing~
you cover the plate completely with ink, then begin the slow process of wiping it off just right. (Are you now thinking of that scene from "karate kid?")  Wax on, wax off, grasshopper....

Ink on. ink off... and at this point you are ready to print. I hate to keep you in suspense, but I have no finished prints to post from these two. Suffice it to say, I was very happy with the results for Night Sky w/Tree resulting in a darker sky... but the mountain scene had to go through same process I just outlined... again! Still with inadequate results!

I did, however end up with a beautiful print using this same process on thursday. Will post soon~
:)  Learning, learning, learning!