Etching is one of the most expressive and widely loved techniques in printmaking, a classic form of intaglio that works with acid. Instead of cutting lines into a metal plate by hand, the artist lets acid do the cutting. The plate is covered with an acid-resistant coating called a ground; the artist draws through it with a fine needle, exposing the bare metal; and the plate is then bathed in acid, which bites those exposed lines down into the metal. Because drawing through the soft ground feels as free and natural as sketching with a pen, etching can capture a loose, lively line that is hard to achieve any other way.
How an etching is made
- Coat a metal plate, usually copper, with a thin, waxy ground that resists acid.
- Draw the image through the ground with an etching needle, scratching away the ground to expose the bare metal wherever a line should print.
- Place the plate in an acid bath, the mordant, which bites into the exposed metal. The longer it stays in, the deeper the line and the darker it prints.
- Control the tones by stopping out, painting ground over the lines that are deep enough and then biting the rest further, so some lines stay light and others go dark.
- Clean off the ground, ink the plate and wipe the surface so ink stays only in the etched lines, then print on damp paper through a high-pressure press, exactly as in any intaglio print.
Etching and engraving
Etching is often confused with engraving, its older cousin in the intaglio family, but they are made very differently. In an engraving the artist ploughs each line directly into the metal with a sharp tool called a burin, which takes great strength and skill. In etching, the lines are drawn effortlessly through a soft ground and cut by acid instead. That freedom is exactly why etching became so popular: it opened intaglio printmaking to anyone who could draw, and the two techniques are often combined on a single plate.
A short history
Etching grew out of the workshops of armourers and goldsmiths, who had long decorated metal by biting designs into it with acid. The first artist generally credited with turning it into a printmaking method is Daniel Hopfer of Augsburg (about 1470 to 1536), who etched on iron plates in the early 1500s. Albrecht Dürer made the oldest dated etching in 1515, though he soon returned to engraving. In the early seventeenth century Jacques Callot (1592 to 1635) perfected a harder ground that allowed much finer detail, and the century became the great age of etching, crowned by Rembrandt, still regarded as the supreme etcher. Later masters such as Goya, Whistler and Picasso kept the medium alive, and today printmakers often use safer acids such as ferric chloride. You can read more about the printmakers who shaped these methods.
Etching and relief printing
Etching is a wonderful but equipment-heavy technique: it needs a metal plate, grounds and acids, and a heavy intaglio press, so it is usually practised in a dedicated workshop with good ventilation. At Ritualis Press we focus on the far more approachable relief printing, which needs little equipment and no acid to begin. If you are drawn to printmaking, the linocut and the woodcut are the easiest places to start. Our step-by-step guide for beginners will get you going, and the glossary explains any other term you meet.