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Sandpaper Mezzotint Experiments

1/27/2014

3 Comments

 
Picture
Above: The inked up copper plate before printing through the printing press
Picture
Above: the printed image
This type of Mezzotint was created by preparing a copper plate as follows... the copper plate edges were bevelled and the plate cleaned and degreased. Acrylic hard ground was poured onto the plate, step dried and hardened overnight.  400 grit "Wet & Dry" paper was placed over the copperplate, with the grit side in contact with the prepared hard ground surface. The press was set at a heavy pressure and the plate with the "Wet & Dry" paper grit in contact with the set hard ground surface was passed through the press about 10 times with the "Wet & Dry" paper being moved each pass through. The resulting surface was a very fine aquatint pitted surface. The plate was then placed in a Ferric etch solution for about 40 mins. The plate was then ready to scrape & burnish to produce a Mezzotint image.

* After seeing Graeme Peebles beautiful and technically perfect Mezzotints at Wisharts gallery in Port Fairy I realize I have a long way to go but the experimental alternate method was worth trying.






Picture
Picture
              Above: Images of the scraping and burnishing with tools                                                       Above: the initial inking up process of the plate.
3 Comments
Viv
1/28/2014 03:00:47 pm

That looks fabulous. Well done Val.

Reply
Ro Eagle link
1/29/2014 11:37:17 am

A very successful print Val, I look forward to seeing more mezzotints.
Your solar print is also very successful, it's looking like a good year.
Ro

Reply
Martin
1/8/2016 10:32:55 pm

Nice work. To do a mezzotint on the cheap without buying expensive rockers, one only needs to get an old dental drill piece, with diamond tipped dental burrins for it. Makes excellent mezzo and is more accurate. Hope that helps.

Reply



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    Author

    My name is Val McCann and I am a printmaker and I would like to share some of the work I am developing in this blog. I would love your feedback, advice & contributions. I conduct workshops on printmaking with my portable press.

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