For the second instalment of the Etching workshop we were introduced to the process of aquatint. This was exciting because aquatint is a skill I have never practiced with before. For the introduction part of the workshop Tom Martin gave a demonstration of the process on his own personal piece and showed the effects of it with his own work, this was to test the process and figure out the times but to also allow us to see how it was done.
For the workshop I decided to prepeare a new plate and would make a slightly larger sized piece, this was made to be more of a cartoon/ abstract idea and has has been rather successful.
Aquatint is a way of etching a tonal variety onto a plate and involves painting a layer of ink with an airbrush and then masking areas you want to stay white. This proces created a more developed looking print and can be used to create a wide variety of tonal variations.
The two photos show two different elements of the process, the masking of the parts I want to stay the same, and the biting process.
The final outcome of this was a very different outcome to the piece I created in the first workshop and is great news to the collection of works that I can build upon.
Alexandra Fine Art 