Quasquicentennial Oak Process

To print an etching, the artist first creates an etched plate. The plate is the tool that conveys the ink to the paper in the printing process. The printed paper is the work of art — the etching.

Shown above are four state proofs, printed during the creation of the Quasquicentennial Oak etched plate. Here’s how I did it:

I took a fresh, new 9 x 12” zinc plate and polished its surface (to remove any manufacturing marks) and beveled its edges (to keep the edge from cutting the paper during printing). I then coated the plate with a hard ground, a type of paint has a waxy surface when dry. I transferred my sketch of the tree to the surface of the hard ground using transfer paper. With the transferred sketch as a guide, I drew through the hard ground using a stylus tool with a needle point, exposing the metal of the plate in the drawn lines. I then sumbmerged the plate in an acid bath. The acid attacked the exposed metal, etching the lines I had drawn. I planned that these first lines would be the thickest lines in the finished print, so I left the plate in the acid for a long time (about 18 minutes). That made them wider and deeper. Afterwards, I cleaned the hard ground off the plate, and printed the first state proof (fig. 1).

Next, I applied fresh hard ground to the plate. I then transferred more of my sketch to the hard ground surface, and drew the lines through the hard ground that would be the medium lines in the finished print. This time the plate was in the acid about 9 minutes. Again, I cleaned the hard ground off the plate, and printed the second state proof (fig. 2).

Again, I applied fresh hard ground to the plate, transferred more of my sketch to the surface, and drew the lines through the hard ground that would be the finest lines in the finished print. This time the plate was in the acid about 4 minutes. Again, I cleaned the hard ground off the plate, and printed the third state proof (fig. 3).

At this point, it looked pretty good as a line-only etching. But I was trying to capture an atmospheric effect — that of the sun rising behind the tree in the moments when the fog breaks up, with backlit grass along the slope of the hill. So it was time to add some light aquatint tones. Aquatint is a technique that allows the artist to etch a texture into the plate rather than a line. The texture will hold some ink and print as a tone. First, I painted a varnish over the sun and the backlit grass. This would keep those areas from being etched; they would remain smooth bare plate. Bare plate won’t hold any ink, so those areas will print white. Next, a light aquatint (15-second etch) in the sky and some of the grass, and a slightly darker aquatint (30-second total etch) in the shaded foreground area in front of the tree. After I cleaned the varnish and aquatint off the plate, I printed the fourth state proof (fig. 4). You can imagine my thrill when this proof was pulled up off the plate and it was clear the effect was successful.

The next step was to print some trial proofs on the paper I’d chosen for the edition. From those, I decided which one would my B.A.T. (Bon à tirer, French for “Good to pull”). The B.A.T. is the example the printmaker tries to match as they print their edition.