Deconstructing Process

My process has been becoming really formulaic, and I was looking for a way to breathe new life into some of my work. First I wanted to approach the work non-objectively so that I didn't get caught up so much in the imagery, and I could just focus on the process of making the print. The next part of my process I wanted to change up was the order of events of the process I use. Instead of starting with a deep etch, I started with the last process I use: a spit bite utilizing stencils.

This is the stage one print, showing the effect of the spit bite technique.

The 1:1 ratio for the spit bite ended up being a little too strong, it gave me a good start for a non-objective piece, but lacked the value range I was trying to accomplish. So, I side tracked for a moment and tried another spit bite with a 3:1 water to nitric solution. This is closer to what I was looking for, but I still need to work on getting to a solid black in the value range.

3:1 Spit Bite

 Next I wanted to etch the piece utilizing the shapes brought out by the spit bite; I used a sharpie and built up an image with 30 sec  to a minute etching times. I would dry the piece and immediately make more marks and put the plate back in the acid bath.

Stage 2

Last I wanted to add some heavy blacks, and more texture to the plate. I wanted to print this piece as a viscosity print from the beginning and I needed more definite depth changes in the plate. I picked out some shapes to be more negative, and began deep etching the piece.

Finished Print Monochromatic with a cool black

Finished print, viscosity print

Western Bounty - Printmaking

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.

Viscosity Demo

These are some images from a demo I gave on viscosity printing. Viscosity printing was pioneered by Stanley William Hayter at his school Atellier 17. Hayter wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of viscosity printing, but the experimentation in simultaneous color printing at Atellier 17 helped make viscosity printing, and color techniques easier to understand and accomplish.

The premise of viscosity printing is that a thicker ink will not stick easily to a thinner ink. The printing method requires at least three seperate levels of relief and at least two rollers of diffrent densities (soft, medium, and/or hard).

I start by putting the thinnest ink into the recesses of the plate. I do not use a roller at this point, I use a piece of mat board, dip it into the ink and wipe it accross the plate. In the picture I am wiping the excess ink off of the plate using a piece of tarletan.

Here I am adding some burnt plate oil to thin the ink a little more and some transparent base, which also thins the ink and cuts the opacity and intensity of the color, before I roll it onto the plate.

Here I am rolling up my second color with the hardest roller. I am rolling up four, four by six plates at once, because of how the plates were etched the stages of depth were inconsistant by themselves.

Another view of the plates being rolled up with second color.

Rolling up the third color of ink. This is the only soft roller I had at the time, and it obviously has a dead spot in the center.

I've Rolled up all three colors and ran the plate through the press. Here I'm just about to pull the paper back, to see how the print turned out.

Here both the plate and the print can be seen together.

This photo shows the last roller used with the colors picked up from rolling a thicker ink, which was on the roller, over a thinner ink, which was on the plate.

This is just one method of viscosity printing, there are many more ways to print intaglio plates using viscosity printing that produce varying effects in the final product.

Creating an Intaglio Print, Texturing the World

I created this blog in order to have website for my work, but also to bring an interest into printmaking and the techniques used to make these individualistic fine art prints, through traditional means but translated into a contemporary world. This post will cover my technique for how I create my intaglio prints.

This is my 24x36 zinc plate I just had shipped in from Takach Press with a few other tools I needed to work the plate. If you look at my portfolio you will see that I usually work on 4x6 plates, so working on a plate this size will be an exploration in technique.

The first task to accomplish before beginning to etch a plate is to bevel the edges. I use both a file and a triangular scraper to create this edge. The file is aggressive and creates a nice 45 degree bevel quickly, but is not as smooth as I like so I will go over the it with the scraper to take the texture off of the edge.

This is what the beveled edge should look like. This keeps the plate from cutting through your paper or the printing blankets. And now it is time to pull off the protective covering from the plate and get down to business.

Now it is time to hard ground the plate. I use liquid asphaltum thinned with mineral spirits. The asphaltum needs to be cooked onto the zinc with a hot plate heated to around 180 degrees and not exceeding 200 degrees. I also cover the hot plate with newsprint so that my mess is easy to clean up and I don't have to touch the plate to remove it from the heat, and you do not want to start working on the plate until the hard ground has cooled.

I cook the asphaltum until I can no longer see fumes rising from the plate and when I touch the plate I don't leave finger prints. I like the asphaltum to flake off and this is personal preference, nice textures can be created by under-cooking the asphaltum also.

After the Asphaltum has cooled I transfer a basic design to follow for my first etch. There are many techniques for transferring, but for this plate I used charcoal and graphite on a sheet of newsprint about the size of my zinc plate. Place the image face down on the zinc plate, use the regular printing felts and run it through the intaglio press.

 Charcoal transfers excellent but rubs off easy, a soft graphite will transfer just as well and smear much less easily.

This technique is nice because it mirror images your design, so it prints how it was designed.

Now it is time to scrape off the hard ground and begin creating the image to print. I use a triangular scraper most of the time in developing my plate switching between the tip and the scraper edge. I also use a diamond dry point tool so that I can create deep cuts against heavy textures.

I like the physicality of working in intaglio, I don't just scrape off the hard ground, but begin building textures on the plate before the etching process.

Now that the hard ground has been removed the way that I want it, I am ready to put the plate in the acid bath.

This is the acid bath set up that I am currently using. The acid bath is 8:1 mixture of water to nitric acid. The ventilation hood keeps the fumes from being too dangerous. The bath is kept covered to prevent too much evaporation. There is a sink near by to rinse the plate.

The reaction of the nitric to the zinc is instantaneous.

Bubbles start forming on the open spots on the plate.

A feather is used to release these bubbles off of the plate and so that they do not texture the plate in that shape and also to create a convection so that the acid reacts more aggressively to the plate.

With a plate this size it does not take long for the acid bath to create its own convection and feathering is not as necessary.

The acid bath starts heating up and the noxious fumes are much more visible, this exemplifies the need for good ventilation throughout the printmaking process.

After the plate has been etched to a satisfactory level it is taken out of the acid bath and rinsed with water. I only etched this plate for around 30 minutes. I usually etch my 4x6 plates 2-4 hours on the 1st etch to create a heavy initial embossment. The 24x36 plate heated up the acid bath much quicker, but there was also a lot more foul bite than I like.

Now the hard ground needs to be removed so that the plate can be readied for the 2nd etch.

Saw dust is used with mineral spirits to weaken the hard ground so that it comes off the plate easier.

The plate can now be proofed and re-hard ground for the 2nd etch.

Printmaking Works by Taylor Lee Bisbee

Intaglio Works available on Fine Art America

intaglio prints