Etching Technique, Fine Art by Julianne Ricksecker

Posted 5 months ago by Julianne Ricksecker

Printing Limited Editions

One of the wonderful attributes of original printmaking is that, once you have created the plate, you can choose how many times to print it. More than one person can acquire your original work because each impression pulled from the plate is an original print. There are a variety of factors that influence the number in a limited edition of original hand-pulled prints.

Deciding on edition size

Most of my editions are around 25. This number was arrived at rather arbitrarily, thinking about the number of hours that go into developing a plate, and the relatively low price collectors will pay for a print as opposed to an oil painting, especially for a young artist just starting out. I toyed with an edition of 40 and a few editions of 16 or 20, before deciding that 25 seemed like a good number. Some plates have a naturally limited number. Drypoint on plexiglass, for example, only holds up for about 5 prints before it loses it’s special line qquality. Drypoint on zinc may hold up for 20 oe 25 before you can see the wear on the plate. Other plates, such as a zinc etching or a collagraph made from Masonite and acrylic medium, may physically hold up for considerably larger editions.

There may be market reasons to increase the size of the editions. There was a period of time during which my work was represented by a wholesaler to the design trade. Because of the investment they would make in marketing materials (this was before the internet and easy digital reproduction and distribution of marketing materials), they needed the editions to be no smaller than 100 and and requested even larger editions of 150 for some images.

I knew that technically this should be feasible – zinc plate should hold up for that many prints, I had been told, though I had not printed an edition that large. My collograph plates seemed likely to be even more durable, being well coated with acrylic medium as a final coat regardless of what materials went into creatin

g the plate. That sounded like a huge number to print, but they were willing to buy prints outright in lots of 10 or 20 at a time rather than take them on consignment, so I was willing to set larger editions for those works. You will find a few editions from that time period that number up to 150. Read more >

Printing Large Editions Over Time

Posted 5 months ago by Julianne Ricksecker

Indian Summer, viscosity etching, ed. 20. Entire edition printed at once in 1982

ensuring consistent prints can be achieved

Since most of my plates require multiple colors of ink and the wiping of the plate involves strategies to blend colors or retain discrete areas of color, I started making detailed notes. I wrote “recipes” for the colors, especially when mixing several to get an exact hue. Wiping plans included the order of application of color to the plate, and how “clean” each color was to be wiped before application of the next color and sometimes even which direction to drag the rag across the plate. Finally, I saved packets of color in aluminum foil and sealed in sandwich bags, to have a sample of the ink to use in mixing a matching batch later, if necessary.

I tried to always take these steps in order to ensure consistent results, and over the years I found them to be very helpful..There are a number of editions that have been printed incrementally in batches of 5 or so at a time.

Deciding whether to Print the entire edition at once

In the early years, I printed editions out and canceled the plate before moving on to the next print. This changed when show deadlines started to come up faster than I could print out all that edition work. It was important to create new work for the shows so I bagan to print out a few for each plate – the “bon a tirer” or match print, which would remain in my records, and then numbers 1-3 or 1-5 – enough to get the prints for the show and maybe have a matted impression or twp for the bin as well.

Quickly this became the practice, because making new work is always more fun than printing out the edition even when there are no deadline pressures! Not to mention that having entire editions printed is a significant investment in paper, ink, and time – and storage space. It does feel awkward to me to sign the Certificates of Authenticity with a statement that the plate WILL be canceled when the edition is complete, instead of that is HAS BEEN canceled.

Because many of my etchings are printed in multiple colors in the á la poupée technique, and it takes a number of trials to get the image right in the first place, I was concerned about how to effectively produce matching prints at a later time.

Posted 7 years ago by Julianne

I love Yosemite National Park for its amazing rock formations, astonishing waterfalls, and beauty at every turn of the trail. River Bend with Half Dome is a view of the famous Half Dome formation viewed from a bridge over the Merced River.

I was out early in the morning to start a hike to one of the waterfalls that feeds into the Merced, and was taken with the cool, soft colors of the morning light, especially the blues and purples of the glacial carved rock. I knew well that these colors would change dramatically as the sun rose higher and the day grew hot. I wanted to capture this cool morning feel in an etching.

River Bend With Half Dome, 2-pate etching

There are a number of ways to make an etching in multiple colors. One approach is to use more than one plate, printing each plate on top of the previous print. This method has inherent challenges with registering the plate and the paper so that the images line up precisely. Add to that challenge the fact that the paper must be damp in order to pull the ink from the incised areas of the plate. When the paper runs through the press, felt blankets cushion the process, and moisture is pulled from the paper. The paper stretches as it runs through the press, and begins to shrink immediately as it dries. The paper shrinkage can cause the images to misalign. In sunny Southern California with our extremely low humidity most days, and this adds a significant extra challenge to the registration process.

Consequently, I usually prefer to use a different technique to pull my color prints, a process known as à la poupée, in which I ink discrete areas of the plate with different colors and run it through the press only one time. See a previous blog, Working Out the Color Wipe: A La Poupee Printing, for more on this technique.

First plate for blues, purples and sienna in the water

I usually need large areas of color for the à la poupée process to be successful, and I could see that my planned image would have several areas that would be difficult to wipe à la poupée at the juncture of the greens and the purples. The solution was to combine these two processes to mitigate the challenge. I created two plates, each inked à la poupée in multiple colors.

The first plate, zinc etched in aquatint tones, will be wiped in blue for the sky, two shades of purple for Half Dome, and sienna for the shadows in the river.

The second plate, also zinc etched in aquatint tones, will be wiped in dark green, yellow green and brown.

The next few pictures illustrate the plates printed in black ink, showing how each prints alone and how they align when printed on one paper.

The two plates printed together in black

Note that the print is backwards from the plate. In order to have the final image appear as the original view, the plate must be a mirror image. In many cases, I don’t worry about this, but for some famous and well-known landmarks, I reverse the image on the plate. Notice also the plate mark, the indentation from the paper being pressed over the plate. This mark is characteristic of intaglio printmaking processes.

Plate # 1, inked and wiped, on the press bed.

Laying paper on Plate # 2 on the press bed, after printing plate # 1.

Plate #1, inked and wiped, is placed on alignment marks on the press bed, ready for printing. Note the 4 colors, and how the rest of the surface of the plate is wiped “clean” so that it will be white in the print.

When plate #1 has run through the press, the paper is captured under the roller to prevent it moving. The second plate is carefully placed on the press bed on the alignment marks, and the paper lowered onto it. Then the felt blankets are lowered and the second plate is run through the press.

Once the plates are completed, the color proofs are made. There are usually a series of proofs establishing the precise color mix desired for the final print. These early proofs are usually destroyed. The first proof that captures what I am going for is called “bon à tirer” (literally, good to pull). This print remains in my collection and is the print all others should match. After that, printing of the edition can begin.

The resulting print, River Bend with Half Dome.

As with most of my editions in the last 25 years, I only print a few images in the edition, and then I put the plate away. I keep very meticulous records of what has been printed. Should those early images find homes, then I will pull out the plate and print again. In the meantime, I am on to the next creative challenge!

River Bend with Half Dome is currently on display in “One Foot in the River” at the Lillian Davis Hogan Gallery at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona, MN

Working Out the Color Wipe: A La Poupee Printing

Posted 10 years ago by Julianne

If you have been following this blog, you have watched the development of a zinc plate though polishing, beveling, line drawing etch, tonal or aquatint etch, spit bite aquatint, and using paint markers and grease pencils as acid resist.

You have seen a number of proofs of the image along the way, called “Stage Proofs” – proving the plate at different stages of development.

MacKerricher Beach, Second State Proof

The final stage of development is working out the color wipe. The plate could be printed with black ink only, resulting in shades of grey, or inked in all one color, such as sienna, for a monochromatic image of shades of that color.

I print in a technique called “a la poupee” – a French term literally translating as “by the dolly”. It means dabbing and wiping different colors on different parts of the plate.

Many of my etchings are done this way, where colors are applied to sections of the plate and wiped separately, then the all of the colors printed at once on the etching press.

It is possible to wipe a base color and then apply another color over the top of it for a blended effect, and to bring color from one area of the image into another area. I do a combination of these for most of my color wipes.

On MacKerricher Beach, I started with two blues, one that was mostly Payne’s grey for the cloudy sky, and another for the waves coming through the gap. The rocks and cliffs were all wiped with sienna, and the trees and bushes with Cascade Green. The resulting print was nice but didn’t quite “pop” for me, so I remixed the colors a little, but more importantly, added a fifth color, a darker brown.

In this version, the foreground rock is wiped with a dark brown after the cliffs and the haystack rock are wiped with sienna. Some of the dark brown is wiped over the sienna at the base of the cliffs and blended into the sand.

A new green mix was applied to the tree, and the dirty rag from wiping the tree was used to dab a little green onto the haystack rock, the top of the cliff, and the side of the foreground rock. Then a clean rag wipe over all completes the color wipe.

This color combination is satisfying, and the placement of the layered green and brown is just what I was looking for. Now the challenge will be to make the overwipe layer areas similar from one print to the next.

Great attention to detail will be necessary to match the bon a tirer with subsequent wipes. While I don’t expect them to be identical, it will be possible to wipe too much – leaving the image t0o pale – or to dab the colors onto a larger or smaller area, creating a different look which may not be as satisfying. These prints are usually destroyed, although if it is interesting in it’s own right, just different from the edition, it may survive as an “artists proof”.

Subtle Effects in Etching: Spit Bite

Posted 11 years ago by Julianne

Spit bite: painting acid directly onto the Aquatinted plate

In the last post, I talked about creating aquatint tones using hard ground and paint markers to cover the plate and protect it from the acid. In another process, the acid can be painted directly on the plate to create subtle effects and soft edges.

The plate is covered in an aquatint ground (a ground of tiny speckles that will result in very small raised points of metal when etched. See How Tones Are Created in Etching for more detail on this ground.)

Next, any parts of the plate that need to be protected from the acid are covered in a solid acid-resistant ground, such as liquid hard ground. This appears coffee-colored in the above photo.

Now the fun begins. Using a weak solution of acid and an animal hair brush, the prepared plate is literally painted with acid. Acid can be stroked onto the plate, dripped onto it, or dripped into puddles of water that have been painted onto the plate.

Because the acid is weak and is depleted quickly in this process, areas that are to retain ink need to be painted over and over with the acid, until the etch is deep enough to hold the desired amount of ink. It is not possible to tell just

Spit bite plate — The plate is stained from the acid

from looking at the plate exactly how deep the etch has become, so it is important to have a sense of how many times a given area has been painted with acid in order to gauge progress. The application of acid to the plate in this manner results in the plate appearing stained, but the varying color of the stain does not relate closely to the eventual tone in the print.

When the artist determines that the spit bite is deep enough, the plate is flushed with water, and dried. All of the grounds are removed, and the plate is inked, wiped, and printed to check on progress.

Using paint marker for highlights in the waves

For this image, however, I chose to continue to develop tones for areas representing sand and surf. I used paint marker to protect the highlights in the waves.

Another technique I like is to draw over the aquatint ground with a china marker (grease pencil). This is another way to create subtle gradations of tone in the aquatint.

Using a china marker for subtle gradations in the sand

Again, development of tones proceeds by soaking the plate in acid, then using paint marker and china marker to cover more of the plate and soaking in acid again.

Here you see continued development of tones for sand and waves. Eventually the areas still exposed to acid are very small.

Eventually the area being etched is very small.

Finally the grounds are cleaned from the plate. The bare plate gives some idea of how the plate will print if you look at how light reflects from the surface. The spit bite areas are somewhat deceptive because of the irregular acid staining.

The bare plate after grounds are removed.

Next step is to ink and wipe the plate, and print it on the etching press to check progress. Here is a view of the press, which has rollers above and below the traveling bed. Note the felt blankets folded up out of the way, waiting for the plate and paper to be set upon the bed.

The plate is inked and the surface is wiped with rags. Now you can see more clearly how the acid has affected the plate, especially in the spit bite areas.

Damp paper is placed over the inked plate, and covered with soft felt blankets. The resulting sandwich is rolled through the press.

Felt blankets (3 layers) are lowered onto the press bed.

After rolling the bed between the rollers, the pressure pushes the paper fibers into the plate to transfer the ink to the paper. Note the plate marks visible from the back side of the paper after the plate has gone through the press.

Here is the black and white proof (print) of the etched plate. The spit bite has produced a brooding grey sky of indistinct clouds.

The next process in developing this image will be mixing colors and proofing the plate in color.

How Tones Are Created in the Etching

Posted 11 years ago by Julianne

If you have ever wondered how the fine tonal areas are created in an etching, here is an example of a modern method.

The idea is to create a speckled pattern of an acid resistant material on the plate so the acid can eat around the speckles, leaving tiny raised metal points. When ink is applied and then wiped with rags, the depth of the etch determines how much ink remains on the plate, and therefore, how dark the printed tones. In the example at left, the palest tones resulted from a 10 second dip in the acid, while the darkest areas soaked in the acid about 15 minutes.

So what is thus mysterious speckled resist? In modern times, we can use spray enamel paint for a quick and reliable method to cover the plate in a fine and even mist.

Aquatint ground for tone — Aquatint ground on plate

Krylon Spray Enamel for making aquatint ground

In the image at the left, you can see that the coverage of enamel is at 40% or so. Coverage in the range of 40% – 60% will work well.

Next, the same liquid wax and asphaltum ground that was used to cover the plate for the line etch is now painted on the plate to protect areas that will have no etched tone.

Sometimes very fine brushes are used to work delicate details.

When the areas of the plate that need to remain “white” are protected with ground (which looks coffee-colored in the photo), the plate is ready for an acid soak.

The plate will be bathed in the acid repeatedly to achieve a variety of tones. When the plate is removed from the acid, it is rinsed with water and dried. Then additional ground is placed on the plate to protect the tones just etched before it is returned to the acid to continue etching some areas to a deeper level. The longer the aquatint soaks in the acid, the darker the tone will print.

I could use the regular liquid hard ground for this purpose, but for complex tone development, I find it easier to visualize the tones I have already etched if I use paint markers in different colors to protect the plate for subsequent etches in the series.

I start with a general plan of how many times I will return the plate to the acid, and for how many seconds or minutes each acid bath will be. This plan comes from years of experience, a sense of how potent the acid bath is, and noting how warm the studio is. I keep notes of how long the plate has been in the acid as I progress, so that I can keep track of how long the still exposed areas have been etched in total. Many of my plates have 6 – 10 separate acid baths during this phase of development, and it is easy to forget just how many times the plate has soaked, and for how much time.

Finally, all of the enamel, hard ground and paint marker is removed from the plate, and the plate is inked and printed to check progress.

The acid has etched between the speckles of enamel, leaving a high point at each place where enamel adhered to the plate. When inked and wiped, the plate will hold ink between these high points. The more difference between the high points and the depth of the etch, the m

ore ink the plate will hold. If you look closely at an aquatint print, you will see the fine pattern of white spots from these high points of metal.

I could scrape or burnish some of the aquatint areas to give more subtle variations in the tone. Burnishing is like lightly erasing – is will make the aquatint print in a lighter tone.

Note that there are a few unintended marks in the “sky” area – this is where the hard ground was not thick enough and allowed the acid to seep through; this is known as “false bite”. If it does not work with the image, it will be scraped and burnished to clean up the area.

The next step will be to create a brooding sky with a technique called “spit bite”, and some sand in the foreground with surf tumbling up between the rocks. That will be for my next blog!

How the Line Drawing is Etched

Posted 11 years ago by Julianne

Last time I wrote about preparing a zinc plate to begin the etching process – the work that needs to happen before image making even begins.

Grounded plate — Plate covered with ground

Today I’ll show how an image is etched into the plate. Since the etching literally occurs by soaking the metal plate in nitric acid (hence the term “etching’), the first order of business is to protect the plate from the acid. As my resist, I use a liquid ground made of asphaltum and wax, which dries hard and smooth.

Preliminary Sketch of MacKerricher Beach

Transferred Sketch — Sketch transferred to grounded plate

I usually work out the composition in sketches first, and may make a full size drawing. The basic outlines of the drawing can be transferred to the plate using a transfer paper, similar to a dressmaker’s carbon.

The line drawing is done with a needle, scraping through the ground with the fine point. The idea is only to expose the metal plate to the acid, not to scratch the plate.

Developing drawing with cross hatched lines

Whether using a transferred outline, or drawing freehand, the needle is used to draw lines and to create shaded areas using cross-hatched lines. The drawing is sensitive and delicate, using the transfer drawing as a general guide only

Soaking in nitric acid — The first etch: soaking line drawing in nitric acid

When the drawing is satisfactory, the plate is soaked in nitric acid for 10 – 40 minutes, depending on the strength of the acid and how deep I desire the etched lines to be.

When the etching is complete, I clean the ground from the plate, and print a proof to check the etch so far.

I scrape ink over the plate, forcing the ink into the incised lines. Then I use rags to wipe ink from the surface of the plate until all the un-etched surfaces are clean.

Next I place the inked plate on the bed of the etching press. Damp paper is placed on the plate, and several layers of felt are laid down on top of the paper. This sandwich is rolled through the press, which has rollers above and below the press bed, squeezing the fibers of the paper into the incised lines on the plate.

Printed image and inked plate on press bed

When the paper is lifted from the plate, the image has been transferred to the paper. Note that the printed image is the reverse of the drawing. When designing an image of a well known landmark, I reverse the drawing so that the final image will be familiar to the viewer.

Next time, I will show how tones can be etched into the plate. I’ll add a cloudy sky, surf, and sand to the image.

How Plates are Prepared for Etching

Posted 11 years ago by Julianne

Tueeulala Falls, etching, ©2009, Julianne B Ricksecker

Last week I started preparing plates for a new series of etchings for the “7 Printmakers” exhibit in San Diego in October. I wondered as I worked how many non-etchers know what goes into preparing metal plates to create an original etching?

Etchings are original prints, printed on paper from a plate that was created by the artist, and inked and printed by hand by the artist or a master printer. See Intaglio Printmaking Technique for a little more information about etching the image and printing the plate.

Before the image-making work can even begin, there is work to prepare the plate for the process. I work on zinc, which is milled in such a way that the plate is smooth and flat, but it has a dull surface with a vague pattern from the milling. If inked and printed without any prep work, the plate would produce a uniform dirty grey tone.

In order to create a surface that will wipe clean for printing (remain white in the final print), it is necessary to polish the surface of the plate to nearly a mirror shine. I start by polishing the surface with a fine sandpaper, and then use progressively finer sanding films. The last few polishes are done using very fine polishing compounds on a soft cloth. #0000 steel wool is used to buff a nice shine.

The purpose of all this polishing is to create a very slick surface that will not hold ink when the plate is wiped for printing. It is important to create this surface before creating the image in the plate, as the act of polishing would alter the etched image. (Note the dull finish of the plate in the photo at left, and the mirror like shine in the photo at right. The pencil is used here just to illustrate the reflectivity of the two plates.)

The second important step in plate preparation is beveling the plate to remove the sharp edges and corners so that the plate will go through the press without tearing the paper and the felt blankets. Sometimes I (impatiently) skip this step until I am ready for proofing the plate, but it is safer to bevel the plate before the image is created! A slip of the beveling tool could damage the image, I have learned to my dismay!

I was taught to bevel etching plates using a metal file, but I get better results using an edging tool made for beveling plexiglass. It allows me to shave the edges of the plate into a nice rounded bevel. (Beveling tool is pictured at the bottom of the photo of supplies.) The plate is clamped overhanging the edge of a table, and the tool is repeatedly scraped down the length of the plate until the desired bevel is achieved.

The scraping leaves scratch marks that can hold ink, so the bevel will need to be burnished and polished before edition printing. I usually wait until all of the etching of the plate is complete before finishing the beveled edge to a smooth shine.

Next time I will write more about how the design is etched into the plate.