Etching is a process of creating a design on a metal plate with the use of acid. Etching has importance both in the fine arts and in commercial printing. This article discusses etching as a fine art. For information about etching in commercial printing.
How etching works.
Most plates used in etching are made of copper, zinc, or iron. First the artist polishes the plate to remove any scratches. The plate is then covered with ground, an acid-resistant coating of beeswax, bitumen, and resin. After the ground dries, the artist draws a design or image into the ground using a sharp metal tool. The artist covers the edges and back of the plate with a tough, acid-resistant varnish and places the plate in an acid bath. Hydrochloric acid is used for copper plates and nitric acid for iron and zinc plates.
The acid etches (eats away) the exposed areas of metal, creating indentations in the plate. The depth of an indentation determines the appearance of a line in the finished picture. To make lines and dots of different depth and size, the artist gives the plate several acid baths, varying the time the plate is submerged. Before the second and each successive acid bath, the artist uses either ground or varnish to stop out (cover) areas of the plate having the desired depth.
After the etching process has been completed, the artist removes the ground and varnish. The plate is warmed and covered with a layer of oily ink. The artist wipes the plate with a pad of coarse buckram cloth until a deposit of ink has been forced into the etched indentations. The wiping action also removes ink from the unetched areas of the surface. The artist then places the inked plate on a press. He or she puts a sheet of dampened paper on the plate and covers the paper and plate with felt blankets. The heavy rollers of the press exert tremendous pressure on the felt, pushing the paper into the ink-filled grooves. This causes the ink to transfer onto the paper, creating the finished print.
Artists can achieve special effects by various methods, such as the way they apply and wipe the ink and the type of paper they use. Various tones can be created by roughening the plate’s surface so it holds different amounts of ink. To combine tonal areas with an etched line, artists use a method that is called aquatint.
History.
In western Europe, etching began in the early 1500’s. It became an independent, creative art form in the 1600’s, especially through the work of the Dutch artist Rembrandt. Pablo Picasso ranks as perhaps the greatest etcher of the 1900’s.
See also Rembrandt; Glass (Etching); Printing (Methods of printing).
