This is your chance to have your etching questions answered by a Crown Point printer. Send us a question at: advice@crownpoint.com
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This question is answered by Emily York, author of the NEW book: Magical Secrets about Aquatint: Spit Bite, Sugar Lift & Other Etched Tones Step-By-Step
Dear Emily,
The current Nathan Oliveira show is exquisite. Those luscious, deep, transparent backgrounds are most puzzling. How the hell did he do that?
- Barry Peterson, Sausalito, CA
Dear Barry,
I was the printer for Oliveira’s 2005 project where he made “Angel Rocker” and “the Twin Runners.” In both of those prints there are two full aquatint plates that make up the background color. In “Angel Rocker” the first plate printed is in a bright yellow, which you can see coming through in a small area on the angel’s shoulder where the top color plate was burnished down. The second plate printed has the figure on it and the subtle sanded green texture. The third plate was another full, flat aquatint that was printed in a rusty rose brown over the entire image. Oliviera had the rust color custom mixed by Gamblin especially for the project. He’d been dreaming about it for a long time. The layering of the aquatints produces a rich field of color. There is transparent base in each color, so they aren’t too heavy. Oliveira told me that his experience in lithography gave him a taste for what he calls “veils of color.” For some reason (probably the way the plate sits in the acid bath, possibly the way the rosin melts) these large plates always seem to etch more at the edges than in the middle, which works in our favor because when the two plates are printed together the center looks like it’s glowing. The images are quite amazing but technically pretty simple. The key is getting a nice smooth aquatint.
Regards, Emily
Dear Emily,
I am experimenting with spit bite with mixed results. I am worried that I’m picking up patterns from the blanket in the image. I want to get smoother gradations like I see in your prints at Crown Point. I particularly like Pat Steir’s “Mixed Marks, Landscape” and “Moon Lake”. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Maybe with putting on the rosin? I’m using ferric chloride as the etch. What do you think?
Are you really coming out with a book?
—Paul
Dear Paul,
There is a good chance that your blankets or the way you have set them up may be causing the problems you have been having when printing a spit bite plate. The best blankets to get are woven 100% wool felts. It is important that the weave of your blankets is as tight as possible as a strong weave will be transferred to your print. Generally, we only use one 1/16” blanket and one 1/8” blanket when printing. We find that using the traditional thick 1/4” pressed felt pusher blanket along with the other two blankets is not necessary and actually yields a weaker impression. You may want to try stretching the blankets out a bit before printing your plate. Clean blankets are generally a little fluffy and need to be worn in to get a smooth impression. Simply run your uninked plate through the press several times; progressively lower the pressure as needed.
If you’ve played around with the blankets and your printing technique your problem might have to do with the way you’ve made the plate. The way you apply and melt the rosin on the plate will largely determine the quality of your spit bite aquatint. We do have a new book in the Magical Secrets series coming out this spring, which I wrote. All aspects of applying an aquatint ground are covered in great depth in the book. In the spit bite section, there are step-by-step instructions for using nitric acid and ferric chloride. For the most part we use nitric acid for spit bites because of its strength and ability to quickly record every gesture and mark you make on the plate. However, nitric must be used with proper ventilation because of the noxious fumes it produces. As an alternative you can use ferric chloride, which is less toxic. Ferric can be a bit more tricky to use for spit bite since it generally takes a few applications to build up a tone as rich as that made with nitric.
Surprisingly, the Pat Steir image “Mixed Marks, Landscape” that you like for its smoothness and depth was actually made using ferric chloride as the etch. Steir achieved this look by heavily pooling the ferric onto the plate and then she let the acid sit for a good deal of time to allow the acid to etch the plate as deeply as possible. Much of the tone in Steir’s “Moon Lake” comes from a water bite plate in the background. Steir made the spit bite marks in “Moon Lake” using nitric acid.
Hope that helps!
—Emily
