If a brush design is to be etched in high relief, for ease in printing
or for durability, it must be etched only to the extent absolutely
required at first. Then it must be prepared with gum and inked-in with
good acid-proof color. Set it aside for a while, that the color may
concentrate so that it will resist the acid well, and then etch the
stone to the desired degree. After etching, wash with water, coat with
gum and put aside to dry. Owing to this latter procedure any fine parts
that may have been unduly affected by the acid will adhere to the plate
anew and it can be printed then like a pen design.
If pen and brush work are to be combined on a stone, and absolute
certainty is desired, that even the very finest lines shall not suffer
from etching, the following process will serve:--
Over the cleanly ground plate pour a solution of weakened but pure
aquafortis, about forty parts of water to one part of aquafortis. Repeat
this several times. Then pour a great deal of water over the stone, to
wash off all acid, and let it dry. Pen as well as brush work is easy on
such a stone, by using the proper ink for each method. When the work is
finished and dry, the stone is merely coated with gum solution. After a
few minutes it can be inked-in with acid-proof ink and treated as
described before.
II
THE CRAYON METHOD
The fat of the chemical ink penetrates the stone in dry form as well as
in fluid form, and makes the plate receptive to printing-color. If the
dry ink is cut into long pieces and sharpened, it can be used much like
lead or black crayon. If the stone is ground very smooth, the work can
be made quite fine and resembles that done with fluid ink. The crayon,
however, wears away too quickly. If the stone is ground rough, so that
instead of a polished surface it has one resembling rough paper, the
crayon work appears as a mass of dots that are coarser or finer
according to pressure with the crayon, and produce an effect similar to
crayon designs on paper. As almost every artist and painter knows how to
use crayon, no particular practice is required for working on stone, and
there are no obstacles such as the difficulty of using the steel pen.
That crayon work on stone is capable of high perfection, and that it can
represent the essentials of a painting in a manner scarcely to be
excelled by the best copper-plate engraver, has been demonstrated by
many successful productions. Add to this that in no other style can one
work equally fast, either on copper or stone, and we see that the crayon
method is a genuine advantage for the art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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