Name: Tessa Chambers Date: 5/24/2018, 5/31, 6/5
Room Temperature: 76*F Humidity etc: Dry
Experiment Title: Image Making – 12×18 inch plate – Line Work & Aquatint
Experiment Goal: To begin the process of image making with line work and aquatint, using varied etching times to get a wide range of tones.
Plate material: Aluminum 5052
Plate Preparation: Line work- Steel wooled, degreased with Bon Ami & soy sauce, BIG grounded with drypoint line work (x2)
Aquatint- Degreased with 7th Generation & soapy water
Evaluation of Plate Preparation: Normal, plate grounded for two separate line work sessions.
Etching Bath Notes: Line work – Bath had not yet etched images, at first I etched for 5 minutes then again for another 5 to get a darker line.
Aquatint- Bath was very murky which made it difficult to feather open areas etching on the plate.
Time in bath: 10 min (x2) 20 minutes total line work
3 sec, 2 sec, 5 sec, 1 min, 30 sec, 30 sec, 2 min (total: 4 min, 10 sec aquatint)
After Bath Evaluation: Line work: When lines etched for the second round of 5 minutes it was hard to see when feathering the image with a paint brush (feathered to keep the copper from settling in small lines and details.)
Aquatint: Some of the stop out started lifting after repeated etching. The bath was impossible to see out of when feathering open etch spots. The copper was getting caught in the line work.
Removal of Grounds: Line work: Estisol 150
Aquatint: Stop out removed in stripper bath
Inking Methods: Bone black, 30% Burnt Plate Oil 00
Paper Type: Hahnemuhle Copperplate
Soaking Time: 30 min
Press, blanket set up, pressure: Praga press, 2 catchers, 1/8, 1/8 (used a moist piece of backing paper as an extra cushion for the ink, instead of newsprint)
Conclusions: Line work: After two very spotty prints of the linework, we used a second wetted sheet of hahnemuhle to cushion the print and add extra pressure. We also loosened the ink with more burnt plate oil.
Aquatint: The print had a nice range of tones, but no bright whites (even in stopped out areas.) There was minimal difference in the lightest etched tones.
12X18 Line work
Stop out, aquatint process.
12×18 print after aquatint.