aquatint -
An intaglio, etching, and tonal printing process in which
a porous ground allows acid to penetrate to form a network
of small dots in the plate, as well as the prints made by
this process. Aquatints often resemble wash drawings. Any
pure whites are stopped out entirely before etching begins,
then the palest tints are bitten and stopped out, and so
on as in etching. This process is repeated many times until
the darkest tones (deepest recesses in the plate) are reached.
The white areas of the plate have been totally stopped out
and the darkest areas are the deepest bitten thus holding
the most ink. The etched plate is inked, wiped and then
printed. Each impression requires these steps.
updated
1.30.04
