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Dry Point Etching

Dry point etching is an intaglio form of printmaking, traditionally made by

transferring ink rubbed into scratches made onto a copper plate, onto paper.

For our purposes we will be working onto Perspex.

Method

• Working in line and no larger than A3 Produce a drawing. tilise cross

hatching and linear shading to emphasise form and !olume.

• "n completion of your drawing consider cropping enlarging or reducing it in

order to create an interesting composition, within the si#e of your Perspex

 plate.

• $ay your plate o!er your final composition and trace %scratch& the drawing

onto the plate using the sharpened nail pro!ided. 'y angling the nail you can

control the burring which occurs which in turn effects the way in which theink is distributed and printed.

Printing Image

• (oak and lea!e six sheets of A) paper blotting between clean news print

sheets.

• 'e organised, $ay down clean newspaper onto working area, and collate a

 plastic or card scraper, clean spatula, * small s+uare pieces of rag, oil based

ink and disposable plastic tray. f you ha!e a skin condition or cuts on your

hands which may be ad!ersely affected by contact with the inks wear

 protecti!e glo!es.

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• se a clean spatula to place a small amount of chosen coloured ink into tray.

-eplace lid to ink pot to pre!ent skinning.

• se the scraper to smear the ink thinly onto the plate pushing it into the

scratched detail.

• -emo!e all excess ink with the scraper and then burnish the plate using the

rag.

• $ay down a sheet of blotted paper onto a

sheet of clean newsprint, %use some torn

 pieces of paper to pre!ent contaminating

it with finger prints.& Place the plate on

to it registrating it appropriately.

 Dismantle 1 Dry point etching

with charcoal and water colour 

• Pick up the plate and paper and lay down onto the print bed, %Within another

clean sheet of news print to protect the print blanket&

• he plate needs to be below the paper and blankets in order for the blankets to

 be able to press the paper into the groo!es.

• /ou will normally need to run of two or three prints in order to get a

satisfactory image0 1xperiment with coloured inks, lea!ing some ink on the

surface rather than burnishing completely.

• Produce further experiments utilising 2hin 2olle.

•

2lear your space and dispose of all contaminated waste materials after use,ensure lids are fixed tightly on inks and clean e+uipment and printing plate

thoroughly using cooking oil and washing up li+uid.

• 2onsider working into some of the prints with water colour washes and

different media. %Photocopying a good original onto cartridge paper allows

more scope for experimental approach without destroying originals&

Cynthia McGuirl Etchings utilising Chin Colle

 

Morcord's Melons VE Alien Cafe VE 2/10 Monkey VE 1/6 1997

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9/14 1997 1997