Mezzotint | Art techniques materials

Share Top Five April 11, 2019

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method.It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonality by roughening a metal plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a “rocker”. In printing, the tiny pits in the plate hold the ink when the face of the plate is wiped clean. A high level of quality and richness in the print can be achieved,More info:wiki

Below are photos and Images you may like

#10 Mezzotint Printmaking – Get to know Deborah Chapman,More info:topprintmaking

#9 The Printed Image in the West: Mezzotint,More info:metmuseum

Definition: La manière noire (“the dark manner”)
The term reveals its meaning. A mezzotint–from the Italian mezzo (“half”) and tinta (“tone”)–presents halftones. Specifically, in this type of intaglio (nonrelief) print, subtle gradations of light and shade, rather than lines, form the image.

Technique: Schabkunst (“scraped art”)
“The copper-plate it [the mezzotint] is done upon, when the artist first takes it into hand, is wrought all over with an edg’d tool, so as to make the print one even black, like night: and his whole work after this, is merely introducing the lights into it; which he does by scraping off the rough grain according to his design, artfully smoothing it most where light is most required …”

#8 A. M. Huffman after Edwin Landseer 1859 LG Mezzotint. The Travelled Monkey,More info:albion-prints

#7 Mezzotint Print,More info:craignagasawa

#6 Three new mezzotint prints that continue to explore the emotional qualities of various environments or ‘boneyards’ that I’ve created.Info and pictures of my process are included below. These can also be seen at Davidson Galleryin Seattle, WA,More info:behance