Explanations of printmaking techniques and terms.

Aquatint

Aquatint, an etching technique, is used to create tonal gradations. Despite the “aqua” in its title, the aquatint process does not involve water. It was invented in the 1700s to simulate the effects of ink-and-wash drawings. With aquatint, one can capture a complete tonal range, from a hint of tone to mid-tones to shadows and extreme darks. Aquatints can be airy, as in the etchings of Paula Rego, or velvety, as in the etchings of Pablo Picasso. Francisca Goya benefited from aquatint’s ability to achieve tonal and content darkness.

To make an aquatint, a dense layer of tiny grains of gum rosin is melted onto a metal plate, which then functions as a porous ground; each grain or clump of grains becomes an island that protects the plate, which the acid will bite around.

The most common way to apply the grains is with an aquatint box, which creates and contains a rosin dust storm. After the dust storm, the plate is slipped into the box to collect the falling grains. The plate is then taken out and heated to melt the grains, which adhere to the plate when cooled.

BAT

Bite

Because the word ‘etching’ comes from a Dutch word meaning ‘to eat’, the acid corrodes the metal plate and is called biting the plate. The acid will bite any part of the metal it touches. The longer the acid is in contact with the metal, the more it bites, the deeper the grooves, and the more ink the grooves hold.

Chine collé

Paper is as elemental to printing as the ink colour, tone and technique you employ. In chine collé, a thin sheet of paper is printed on while being pasted onto a sturdier sheet of paper – all while the thin paper, inked metal plate and base sheet are rolled through an etching press. The thin sheet – a lightweight paper – is the impression paper, and the sturdier – heavyweight paper – is the support/base paper.

Drypoint

Drypoint, essentially a form of engraving, is a sensitive and immediate (direct / additive) intaglio technique. It is not etching because no acid is used to create the incisions in the metal plate; instead, a sharp tool and the artist’s hand are used. Because the needle works directly on the plate surface, drypoint allows expressive, flowing lines while also accommodating jagged and ‘irritated’ lines.
During the drawing action with a needle or other abrasive tool/material, the displaced metal forms a raised burr along the length of the lines or marks. The main principle of drypoint is that the incised marks and lines hold the printing ink in both the crevices and the burr, resulting in prints with a rich, velvety quality. The inking-up process and pressure exerted by the press soon wear down the burr on the surface of the plate. The incised lines are often very shallow and eventually unable to contain much ink – prints gradually lose their richness and quality.

Edition

An edition refers to prints pulled from the same matrix and inked in the same way, thereby constituting a set of the same image. Although the prints are not unique, they are original prints. The word edition is not a synonym for print. Editions exclude the proofs retained by the artist, printers and publisher/s. Since an original print’s value in the marketplace is partly determined by how many others there are, limiting an edition permits original prints to increase in value, as with other types of art.

Etching

Etching derives from a Dutch word meaning “to eat.” The term implies the use of acid to corrode a metal plate. How the acid interacts with the plate gives the image its character, and how the plate is prepared determines how the acid will interact. The ways of preparing plates for etching provide names for several processes, namely hardground etching, softground etching, and aquatint.

Ferric Chloride

Ferric chloride is an orange-brown liquid that turns murky brown when modified to etch. It is very compatible with copper and brass. When in contact with copper, ferric chloride corrodes the surface and draws ions from the copper. This action manifests as precipitation, from a liquid state to a brown-black solid state.
While the copper is in the solution, it replaces the iron (ferric) because copper has a property known as electro-negativity. This causes the solution to become a mixture of ferrous and cupric ions. As the copper uses more iron in the solution, cupric chloride forms (precipitates) from the solution as a green, blue, brown, or black solid.
Effectively, copper dissolves without producing any gas; 2Fe³ + Cu (solid) = 2Fe³ + Cu²(4).

Handmade paper

Handmade paper describes the basic characteristic of a paper that is made in individual sheets by hand in a traditional manner. Today the process is basically the same as many hundreds of years ago; the sheets are made with skill and care and with little chemical introduction into the stock.

Hardground 

Hardground, an etching technique, is used to create fine line work. The best ground for line work is beeswax mixed with asphaltum and gum rosin. The plate can be handled without the ground being accidentally nicked. The plate is degreased and set on a heated surface. The ground, supplied as a ball, is spread onto it and then spread out evenly with a rubber brayer. When the wax cools, the plate is smoked with the flame of tapers. After that, lines can be drawn through the ground with any pointed tool – the traditional one is a sharp metal cylinder called a needle. The resulting print is called a hard-ground etching. Using hardground, one can draw smoothly – all that is needed is to break the wax. The acid does the rest. The longer the copperplate is in the acid, the deeper the bite and the stronger the lines will print.

Héliogravure

Héliogravure is both an intaglio and a photomechanical technique. It combines the detail of photography with the etching technique. Using pigmented inks and acid-free pulp paper makes héliogravure the most archival print technique. For héliogravure, a continuous-tone positive is exposed to light-sensitive pigmented gelatin tissue bonded to a rosin-coated copperplate. Aquatint, an etching technique, is critical to this tone-based process. After the gelatine is developed, the copperplate, with the image-bearing gelatin, is etched in baths of ferric chloride of varying strengths. Etching (biting) begins with the deepest darks, progresses through the tones to the lightest, and is stopped when the bite reaches the extreme highlights, at which point the etched copperplate is removed from the ferric chloride. The technique produces a full range of tones and yields a high-quality fine art print.

Intaglio

The term intaglio (with a silent g and the Italian word for incised) refers to a printing technique that produces a matrix with pigmented ink below the surface. In other words, it is the process of engraving, etching or scratching a metal plate to form grooves and pits that hold pigmented ink below the surface of the metal. Therefore, intaglio is the umbrella term for engraving, drypoint, etching, mezzotint, photogravure, photo-etching, collagraph and photopolymer.

Liftground 

Liftground, an etching technique, creates a stencil-like image or design on a copperplate. This method can produce outlines of painterly marks, straight edges, geometric shapes, patterns and textures.
Liftground involves making marks on a copperplate with a water-soluble solution. After the solution has dried, the plate is covered with diluted liquid acid-resist to mask the non-painted areas. Upon drying, the plate is submerged in warm water, which causes the solution to swell, break through the resist, and lift off the plate. What remains is exposed copper, representing a stencil of the original marks. By etching the plate, an open bite is achieved. Rosining the plate allows the exposed copper to etch as tones (the darkness of the tone depends on the depth of bite), which is assigned as a liftground aquatint.

Linocut

In a linocut, the unprinted areas are removed with carving tools, leaving areas of the matrix in relief. The raised surface of the matrix receives the ink. Ink is rolled onto this raised positive surface using a brayer or roller, and the image is then printed onto paper. The area below the surface, which does not receive ink, will remain the colour of the paper.

Matrix

The word matrix comes from mater, the Latin word for mother. A matrix can be almost any surface that accepts ink consistently each time it’s applied. The matrix is the source of prints; it holds and guides the ink. To make each impression – each print – the matrix is inked and printed onto a sheet of damp paper under tremendous pressure from an etching press. The image on the paper appears reversed (mirror image) from how it appears in the matrix. In some types of printing, a press is unnecessary; hand pressure is enough. In relief printing, it’s common practice to use a baren to print.
Matrices are made to print prints and, subsequently, editions. The plates themselves are not the artwork or the original. Once a plate is made, prints can be pulled repeatedly from it. Fine art prints are multiple originals (within an edition), not reproductions.

Monoprint

Monoprint is not another word for monotype. There is a distinct difference between a monotype and a monoprint; the monoprint has an element generated from a matrix, which can be repeated to form an edition.

Monotype

A monotype is commonly referred to as the ‘painterly print’. It is generated solely from autonomous marks on a surface – such as PVC, perspex or metal. The monotype contains no ‘re-usable’ elements. In other words, when creating a monotype, the surface an artist paints (with oil- or water-based materials) holds no fixed information that can be printed more than once. Unlike the printing surface of an etching, which has been permanently etched and can be printed in an edition, the monotype exists as a once-off – a unique print.

The exception is that a ghost and a cognate print can be pulled after the monotype is printed. However, as the term ghost implies, this second print is a very faint impression of the marks left on the surface.

Mouldmade paper

The marriage of handmade and machine-made paper combines the deckle of handmade tradition with the consistency and availability of machine-made paper to produce mouldmade paper. Made on a Cylinder Mould Machine in large rolls and available either in rolls or sheets. The surface is of a woven[5] paper, smooth or rough, and weights[6] range from light to medium to heavy. Colours typically include white, cream, light grey, blue, pastel, and black. Mouldmade paper is widely used for various art mediums, including printmaking, watercolour, drawing, painting, book arts, and conservation, to name a few.

The term “mould-made paper” was used from the time of the invention and use of the Cylinder Mould Machine when referring to paper made by this particular machine to denote its unique qualities and manner of making paper, especially heavyweight paper and boards.

Paper type

“Paper type” refers to the specific commercial name given to a paper, indicating a distinct product with its own combination of fibre furnish, weight, surface, and other properties. This name is often structured as [mill name] + [range/finish name], and in some regions, the same paper may be sold under an alternative name chosen by local suppliers.

Planographic

Planographic printing is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is carried on a flat surface, rather than being raised (relief) or recessed (intaglio). Lithography is the classic planographic method, and offset lithography is its widely used industrial form. Another is collotype a gelatin-based photomechanical printing process. 

In lithography, the printable and non‑printable areas of the plate or stone lie on the same plane. What differentiates them is chemistry: grease‑accepting, water‑repelling areas carry the ink, while water‑accepting, grease‑repelling areas do not. During printing, the surface is repeatedly dampened and inked; the ink adheres only to the image areas and is then transferred under pressure to the paper.

Printer’s Proof

A printer’s proof is the print provided to each printer involved in plate production and edition printing.

Publisher’s Proof

A Publisher’s Proof is the print provided to the gallery and institute that funded a print project.

Relief

Relief takes its name from the fact that the raised surface of the matrix receives the ink in linocut and woodcut. In a linocut or woodcut, for example, the negative areas that are not printed are removed using carving tools, leaving these areas of the matrix in relief. Ink is rolled onto this raised positive surface using a brayer or roller, and the image is then printed onto paper. The area below the surface, which does not receive ink, will remain the colour of the paper. The individuality of the relief lies in the energy, directness, authority and spontaneity that can be given to the cut image using various carving tools.

Screenprint

Screenprinting (formerly called silkscreen) or stencil printing, is a printmaking method in which ink is forced through an open image on a mesh or stencil onto the paper beneath. Unlike intaglio or relief, the matrix does not rely on recesses or raised surfaces; instead, certain areas of the screen are blocked out, and the open areas allow ink to pass through. Each pull deposits a relatively thick, even layer of ink, making the stencil ideal for flat colour fields, layered imagery, and graphic, high‑chroma prints.

Soapground

Soapground, an etching technique, uses a permeable ground. This working method produces organic and painterly marks that can be tonal and vary in depth. It’s not entirely acid-resistant and acts as a timed stop-out. The ground resists the acid longer when applied thicker and etches earlier when used thinly.

The action is that the water in the ferric chloride softens the ground. An essential ingredient is soap granules; the speed depends on the ground’s thinness. This allows the ferric chloride molecules suspended in the water to saturate the ground, eventually breaking through to the copper and etching the metal.

The ground can be used by itself or as an underpainting with melted rosin. If it’s not combined with aquatint, the areas of the copper not covered by the ground will create an openbite. If it’s used with aquatint (soapground aquatint), the areas not covered by the ground and only the aquatint will print as a tone – the darkness of the tone depends on the depth of bite, i.e., the time spent in the ferric chloride. Also, the overall images will be more contrasted and have a bit of a salt-and-pepper appearance, depending on the fineness of the rosining.

Softground

Softground, an etching technique, differs from hardground etched lines in that it produces crumbly-looking rather than wiry lines that aren’t even from end to end. Moreover, tonal areas resembling pencil shading can be created, and impressions from flat objects such as fabric, paper, and foil can be achieved through the medium. Softground is essentially beeswax mixed with petroleum jelly or tallow and a small amount of asphaltum; the wax and petroleum jelly or tallow retain the ground’s softness, allowing for a crisp impression of anything pressed into it.

The character of the line changes depending on the amount of pressure used in drawing. More pressure removes more wax, so where the artist pressed harder, the tooth-creating marks are more prominent and closer together than in areas where only light pressure was used. Using coarsely-grained paper gives coarse-textured lines and fine paper fine lines. In general, softground lines look like lines made by the drawing instrument – a clutch pencil, HB pencil, ballpoint pen or any other object on which pressure can be applied.

Spitbite

Spitbite, an aquatint technique, involves etching gestural tonal gradations similar to ink washes and loose watercolour marks by painting directly onto a rosin-covered plate with ferric chloride, an etching mordant. To prevent the ferric chloride from lifting from the surface of the copperplate, spit or gum arabic is added to it. 

Trial Proof

Reductive woodcut

In a reductive woodcut, the image is simplified by identifying the essential tones of highlights, lights, mid-tones, and shadows. The term reductive refers to the technique, in which a single block of wood is carved successively and printed in different colours to represent the tones. A white paper is usually used as the highlight, and printing proceeds from light to dark.