Spitbite Technique Using Stencils

   Spit bite is a technique in printmaking, in which, an aquatint is adhered to the zinc plate, and a 1/1 nitric acid to water mixture is brushed on the plate. It was called spit bite because the acid needs lubrication and the printmaker would commonly spit on the plate, but now we just add some gum arabic to the mixture.

 

This is the plate I am going to aquatint. I have etched the parts that I want, texturing the plate to the level I feel is necessary, and now I want to add chiaroscuro to the background, but not with sharp detail.



This is the aquatint box I use. The air suspends the pine rosin particles and they settle in a uniform fashion.

Close up of the screen the plate sets on. I use a piece of newsprint underneath the plate, so I can pick it up without disturbing the rosin before it gets cooked on. For this plate I turned the air on for 5 seconds, let the particles settle for 1 minute, and set the plate in the box for 30 seconds.

This is a close up of the plate with the loose pine rosin particles on it.

This is a close up of the pine rosin particles as they are cooking on the hotplate. The hotplate is set to around 300 degrees. I am looking for the rosin to turn from an opaque powder into a transparent liquid, but it takes careful observation as the particles are hard to see and if the rosin is over cooked it evaporates.

After the rosin is cooked onto the plate I stop out areas I don't want to etch. I use liquid asphaltum because I can wash it out with a different chemical than I use for the pine rosin in case any mistakes are made.

I have mixed up the spit bite, but chose not to add any gum arabic, because I do not require the lubrication. I have made a bunch of small cut out shapes, that I plan to dip in the acid mixture and place on the plate. For this reason I am working on this process in a sink with a filter, so I can easily washout the acid and not contaminate the water supply at the same time.

Here I have begun adding shapes to the plate. At first I was dipping each piece individually, but I eventually just put all the cutouts in the acid mixture, to speed up the process.

This is a picture of the plate after I have finished the spit bite.

This is the 1st proof pulled since the spit bite.