AQUATINT

			Edith Smith, Instructor

	Aquatint is the most common way of producing tonal areas --
ranging from very light greys to blacks -- in etching.

	After cleaning your plate with amonia solution, stand in a room free
of breezes and slowly sprinkle resin dust from a nylon mesh bag onto your
plate.  Holding the resin bag very high with one hand, let a stream of
resin start before you bring your other hand, with plate resting horizontally
on top of palm, into area of dropping resin.  The resin dust should cover
about 50% of the surface.  You are preparing a dot-pattern in which tiny points
will resist the biting action of the nitric acid.

	Keep your plate level and undisturbed while carrying it to the
hotplate.  At 425 degrees setting, heat your plate until the resin changes
from dust to transparent droplets adhering firmly to the plate everywhere.
Make sure peripheral resin is fused, as well as that in center.  The plate
will probably start smoking at this point.  Without disturbing the resin,
slide the plate to a cool spot on stove until it is cool enough to remove
from the stove completely.  When plate is totally cold, touch resin to
make sure it has adhered.

	All white areas, and white lines, if any, can now be stopped-out
with liquid varnish applied with a brush.  You are protecting these areas
from the acid's mordant action.  The following chart gives suggested bath
times, but results will be tempered by age of bath, air temperature, and
humidity.

	1/2 minute   ----- VERY LIGHT GREY
	 1  minute   ----- LIGHT GREY
	 2  minutes  ----- MEDIUM GREY
	 4  minutes  ----- DARK GREY
	8-10 minutes ----- BLACK

	After only 1/2 minute in the acid, rinse whole plate and blot
dry with paper towel.  Stop-out or paint on protection for everything
you want to appear very light grey in your print.  Put plate back in 
acid for one more minute to produce light grey in all remaining open 
areas.  Stop-out all areas or lines that you want to remain light grey.
Put plate in acid again to bite darker tones, etc., etc.

	Smaller "steps" of baths can be taken and perceived in the lighter
values.  It is possible, and very beautiful, to remove lacquer and resin
grains, re-distribute new resin, fuse, and start completely new aquatint
bitings -- thus producing new veils of overlapping tones.

	It is possible to get graduated tones in several ways: 1) by
gradually tilting acid bath while plate is biting.  2) by painting a
3:1 nitric acid solution on plate over fused resin.  3) by burnishing
completed aquatint -- using burnisher and machine oil (visualization is
clear and accurate -- and aquatinted areas can be burnished back up to
white in just a few minutes.)  4) by applying a gradual partial stop-out
in the form of a #1 or #2 litho pencil -- drawing over fused resin grains.
Remember the more dense the grease coverage is the more complete (whiter)
the stop-out will be.

	Other variations in aquatint can be created by dropping on the 
resin unevenly, by using a spray can of acrylic varnish or rust-resistant
lacquer, or by painting the positive image over fused aquatint with a
syrup-ink solution, known as the sugar-lift aquatint method.

   Before proofing, remove resin grains from plate with isopropyl alcohol.
				AQUATINT

			Edith Smith, Instructor

	Aquatint is the most common way of producing tonal areas --
ranging from very light greys to blacks -- in etching.

	After cleaning your plate with amonia solution, stand in a room free
of breezes and slowly sprinkle resin dust from a nylon mesh bag onto your
plate.  Holding the resin bag very high with one hand, let a stream of
resin start before you bring your other hand, with plate resting horizontally
on top of palm, into area of dropping resin.  The resin dust should cover
about 50% of the surface.  You are preparing a dot-pattern in which tiny points
will resist the biting action of the nitric acid.

	Keep your plate level and undisturbed while carrying it to the
hotplate.  At 425 degrees setting, heat your plate until the resin changes
from dust to transparent droplets adhering firmly to the plate everywhere.
Make sure peripheral resin is fused, as well as that in center.  The plate
will probably start smoking at this point.  Without disturbing the resin,
slide the plate to a cool spot on stove until it is cool enough to remove
from the stove completely.  When plate is totally cold, touch resin to
make sure it has adhered.

	All white areas, and white lines, if any, can now be stopped-out
with liquid varnish applied with a brush.  You are protecting these areas
from the acid's mordant action.  The following chart gives suggested bath
times, but results will be tempered by age of bath, air temperature, and
humidity.

	1/2 minute   ----- VERY LIGHT GREY
	 1  minute   ----- LIGHT GREY
	 2  minutes  ----- MEDIUM GREY
	 4  minutes  ----- DARK GREY
	8-10 minutes ----- BLACK

	After only 1/2 minute in the acid, rinse whole plate and blot
dry with paper towel.  Stop-out or paint on protection for everything
you want to appear very light grey in your print.  Put plate back in 
acid for one more minute to produce light grey in all remaining open 
areas.  Stop-out all areas or lines that you want to remain light grey.
Put plate in acid again to bite darker tones, etc., etc.

	Smaller "steps" of baths can be taken and perceived in the lighter
values.  It is possible, and very beautiful, to remove lacquer and resin
grains, re-distribute new resin, fuse, and start completely new aquatint
bitings -- thus producing new veils of overlapping tones.

	It is possible to get graduated tones in several ways: 1) by
gradually tilting acid bath while plate is biting.  2) by painting a
3:1 nitric acid solution on plate over fused resin.  3) by burnishing
completed aquatint -- using burnisher and machine oil (visualization is
clear and accurate -- and aquatinted areas can be burnished back up to
white in just a few minutes.)  4) by applying a gradual partial stop-out
in the form of a #1 or #2 litho pencil -- drawing over fused resin grains.
Remember the more dense the grease coverage is the more complete (whiter)
the stop-out will be.

	Other variations in aquatint can be created by dropping on the 
resin unevenly, by using a spray can of acrylic varnish or rust-resistant
lacquer, or by painting the positive image over fused aquatint with a
syrup-ink solution, known as the sugar-lift aquatint method.

   Before proofing, remove resin grains from plate with isopropyl alcohol.