Aquatint

Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking process that uses powdered resin to create tonal areas resembling washes or gradients. Acid bites the exposed metal around resin grains, producing printable textures of varied darkness.

Etching: An intaglio process in which acid bites lines or areas into a metal plate through a protective ground. Aquatint adapts etching’s acid-biting action to produce tonal fields rather than only drawn lines.
Copperplate printing: Intaglio printing from a copper plate whose recessed marks carry ink to paper. Copper is a traditional plate material for aquatint and responds predictably to acid.
Jean-Baptiste Le Prince: A French painter and printmaker associated with the development of aquatint in the eighteenth century. Le Prince helped establish aquatint as a means of reproducing tonal effects in prints.
Etching and aquatint: A printmaking technique combining etched lines with aquatint’s granular tonal areas on one plate. Artists often pair aquatint’s washes with etched contours to balance tone and precise drawing.
Mezzotint: An intaglio process that creates tonal images by roughening a plate and selectively smoothing it. Mezzotint builds tone through a continuous rough surface, unlike aquatint’s resin-grain pattern.
Rosin: A solid resin obtained from pine trees and other conifers, used in varnishes and printmaking. Aquatint dusts rosin onto the plate to create acid-resistant islands around which tone develops.
Ferric chloride: An iron salt used as an etchant for copper and other metals in printmaking and electronics. Ferric chloride can bite copper aquatint plates without producing the gas associated with nitric acid.
Eighteenth-century printmaking: Printmaking practices in the eighteenth century, shaped by expanding markets for images and technical experimentation. Aquatint emerged amid efforts to reproduce painterly washes through printed images.
Color aquatint: Aquatint printing that uses separate plates or inking methods to produce colored tonal areas. The resin-grain process can create color fields as well as monochrome shading.
Drypoint: An intaglio technique in which a sharp point scratches a plate, raising a soft burr that holds ink. Drypoint produces velvety lines, while aquatint is suited to broad areas of tone.

Linked from 6 pages