Mezzotint Engraving and Printing

Mezzotint Engraving and Printing

Instructor Name: Carol Wax

Date(s): July 30 &31

Time(s): 9:00- 5:00 each day

Location: Five Points Art Center Print Lab

Ages: 18+

Cost: $250

Class Cap: 8

Workshop Description

Mezzotint is a method for engraving images directly on copper plates without the use of acids or harmful solvents. It’s the equivalent of drawing by blackening a white sheet of paper with charcoal and erasing the image areas. In mezzotint, a “rocker” tool churns a copper plate into a black background that, when scraped and polished, produces images with a broad range of gradations and textures from rich blacks to luminous highlights. 

In this two-day workshop participants learn how to prepare a [black] mezzotint ground and proper use of tools and techniques for creating and printing an image. Demonstrations of alternative grounding methods, use of mezzotint with other intaglio techniques, ways to correct mistakes, and cool printing tricks make this workshop useful for artists with knowledge of intaglio processes as well as beginners with no prior experience. Individual attention assures each participant produces a finished print.

Mezzotint rockers provided during workshop hours; other tools also supplied or available for purchase.

Required Materials

• Any engraving/etching tools already owned (including rockers if owned)
• Apron and loose fitting re-usable rubber gloves, at least one size larger than hands
• At least one 3 x 4-inch tonal sketch (preferably drawn with white pencil or paint on black paper or erased from a blackened background). Sketches should be SIMPLE (for example, no portraits and not too many details): images can be made more complicated as the project progresses.

Instructor Bio

Carol Wax, author of the book The Mezzotint: History and Technique (Abrams, 1990, 1996), is recognized for her mezzotint engravings, which are in numerous museum collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Museum of American Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and The Boston and New York Public Libraries.  Among honors her work has garnered are: two New York Foundation for the Arts Artist’s Fellowships; The American Academy of Arts and Letters Louise Nevelson Award for Printmaking; an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant; and residencies at The MacDowell Colony and Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation’s Space Program.

Instructor Website

http://www.carolwax.com/