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1970 - Stone Set

From my "stone games" series, a set of stones inspired by the essay my friend Ross Jones gave me that described the Apprentices at Sais and how they divined wisdom from stones, the eggs of birds, feathers and shells. According to this, insights could be gained if one looked closely enough at Nature. The most fun I had when making the plate was when I was using my fingerprints and a little puzzle-shaped metal stencil to create the texture and shading on the stones. I was pleased with the gradation I got in the fine aquatinted background tones. This is an intaglio print which I printed in black from an aquatint etched zinc plate. The image is  8 3/4" X 12" on 12 3/4" X 16" Van Gelder Zonen Natural (Buff) paper.

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Printmaking Trivia

Choose one of the responses after the question by selecting its number.

How does one get the gradation effect with aquatint?

1. By different types of acid resist, artists can get variable tones on their etching plates.

2. Not really a plate making process, but a printing process as the printer inks the plate to get tonal gradation.

3. Time is the essence of getting this, as the etcher immerses one edge of the plate first, then slowly lowers it all the way in the mordant.