The Invention of Lithography Part 25

When the stone is fully etched, clean water is poured over it, and then all the parts that have not been coated with chemical ink are treated to a covering. The object of the previous coatings was to prevent access of acid to the parts; but at the same time the ink prepared the parts.

Therefore the remaining portions of the design also must be sated with ink before the stone is inked-in for printing.

Let the stone dry and then pour on it as much oil of turpentine as may be necessary to dissolve this whole ground coating, which then is wiped off with a woolen rag wet with gum solution. Then the stone maybe inked-in and printed.

If an error is observed before etching begins, the first question is if the defect is deeply engraved in the stone or if it has been drawn merely through the ground coating without affecting the stone itself materially. In the latter case it is necessary merely to cover the defective place with chemical ink and draw into it the correction. If the error has been graved deeply into the stone, it must be covered for the time being, but nothing new can be drawn there. To do this, one must wait till the plate has been etched and rubbed-in with color. Then the incorrect part is sc.r.a.ped or ground off as evenly as possible, the place prepared anew with aquafortis and gum, and the correction made with the steel needle.

An intaglio design often is greatly beautified by being printed with a tint plate like a crayon design. It can be done with a second stone, but it can be obtained also with the one plate that has the design on it.

Wash the designed stone with clean water and then paint a thick coat of chemical ink containing more soap than usual over the whole stone or over only such parts as one desires to improve by adding a tone. If lights are to be worked into this tone, it can be done, after inking-in, with a small brush dipped into weak aquafortis.

In printing a stone thus toned, it must be rubbed-in thoroughly with the black color and then cleaned as well as possible. The tint that shows on the surface then is usually too dark, and the firmer the color the darker it is. Then a second rag must be used with a much softer color, which may even be thinned-down with plain oil or b.u.t.ter. It may also contain another coloring substance. Rub this rag very gently to and fro without much pressure till it is apparent that the dark tone has been replaced by a light one. Then the stone is ready for printing.

Stones to be treated to a tint in this manner must be etched somewhat deeper than others, because the lines do not appear so dark against a tone.

In all intaglio methods there is the advantage that parts that turn out too dark can be modified by fine sc.r.a.ping or grinding. The stone merely must be rubbed with acid-proof ink beforehand, that the necessary preparation of the corrected places with aquafortis or phosphoric acid and gum may not attack the rest of the design. Those who attain skill in sc.r.a.ping or grinding with a small piece of black slate can make the softest gradations of shade in uniformly etched designs, and more easily and quickly than by drawing or coating and etching. If the stone has been rubbed-in with color for the first time only a short time previously, the ground or sc.r.a.ped surfaces do not even need to be etched. It is sufficient to wash them with a rag wetted in gum solution, because the color will not have penetrated the stone so deeply that it is likely to reappear.

III

DESIGN WITH PREPARING INK, COMBINED WITH SPATTERED AQUATINT

If a little dissolved gum is painted on a clean stone that then is inked over its whole surface with printing-ink, none will adhere where the gum is. In other words, the stone will have been prepared there. If the gum is permitted to dry before the ink is applied, those parts will become black, too; but as soon as a few drops of water are poured on and the ink-roller pa.s.ses over the stone, all the gummed parts will show up white at once. This led me to make a color mixed with gum, with which one can design on stone and that would have the property of preparing it so that, on printing, the design or inscription will print white.

Some drops of gum arabic dissolved in water are mixed with an equal amount of lampblack and rubbed very fine. This makes an ink similar to Chinese ink, and keeps well when dried. It is rubbed down in a saucer with a little water and then is ready for use.

It can be used on a clean stone, but is likely to flow, for which reason the stone must be painted with a little weak aquafortis mixed with a little nutgall, and then well cleaned again. Still better is it to paint a clean stone some days before with oil of turpentine which is cleaned off again immediately. In that case, however, it is well to mix a little phosphoric acid into the drawing-ink, that the designed parts will be prepared the more surely.

When the design is dry, the whole stone is inked with printing-color, care being taken that not a drop of water touches it before it is perfectly black. Then a little water is poured on, after which there must be a little more rolling with the ink-roller till all the design that is drawn with the preparing-ink is very white and clean. Now the stone can be used for printing, being used in the manner used for pen work. To make the design more durable, that it may not in time thicken in its finer parts, the stone may be well inked-in with acid-proof ink and after a few hours, during which it draws together well, the drawing is etched in intaglio with aquafortis. Then it is coated with gum and the printing is not likely to damage the design.

Here we have an intaglio design which is prepared and prints white.

The case may be reversed, and the black plate may be made white again while the design will print black. This is because a stone treated with preparing-ink gives almost the same result, once it is grounded with acid-proof ink and etched as if the design had been engraved into etching-ground. The etched lines need simply be filled with chemical ink as in engraved work, to make them take color instead of coating them with gum. Then there remains only the obstacle that the stone is not prepared over its whole surface and takes color everywhere. However, it is not difficult to clean the plate and prepare it perfectly, especially if the stone is finely polished. It must be rubbed well with color, and wiped clean at once without rubbing too much of it away from the etched design. To make the color easier to wipe out, Frankfurter black and tallow may be mixed in it. Then the rag that has been used for inking-in is dipped into a mixture of twenty parts water, two parts gum, and one part aquafortis, or better still, phosphoric acid, and rubbed back and forth. The rag must not be too dirty and heavy with color, but it must contain some so that the delicate parts of the design shall not be wiped out and thus rendered susceptible to the acid. The next thing is to try with the finger to see whether the color on top can be easily rubbed away or not. In the latter case the wiping must be repeated till the cleansing mixture has so far prepared the surface that the wet hand or a wet piece of leather can cleanse it perfectly and free it from the dark tone. Now the stone is inked-in with firmer color (acid-proof ink is best). This is wiped off again thoroughly. Very weak aquafortis (or phosphoric acid if it has been used for the work) is then poured over it a few times, and this generally prepares it so well that it can be inked and cleaned easily during the printing.

This method is useful for many kinds of art, and it must not be imagined that it is superfluous because the other ways are quicker.

The engraving-needle is very good for drawing the finer parts of the design through the etching-ground, but the coa.r.s.er ones cause much trouble, while with the pen, these are the very ones that are easiest to produce. By using this method, both advantages can be combined and only that is drawn with the pen which is most readily produced that way.

Thus the whole design, with the exception of the finest parts, is drawn on the white plate with the black preparing ink touche. Then, when it has been covered with acid-proof ink and made white, the finer parts are worked-in with the needle. Or they may be left till the end, when they are engraved-in.

For grounding or blackening the plate, one may use a subst.i.tute for the acid-proof ink if the ground is to be firmer. Use the etching-ground (mentioned several times before) of wax, mastic, pitch, and resin, dissolved in oil of turpentine and mixed with fine lampblack. It will then be susceptible of being laid beautifully uniform on the stone with the ink-roller like printing-ink.

The spattered aquatint method resembles this.

The outlines of the design are engraved or etched into the stone very delicately. After rubbing-in with black printing-ink and cleaning again thoroughly, it is rinsed with a great deal of clean water to take away every trace of gum. When it is dry a small brush is dipped into the preparing-ink, and the stone is spattered as described in the article on spatter-work. After drying, the dots that are too large are treated with the needle, and missing ones are drawn in with the pen. Now apply the roller with the dissolved etching-ground, that must, however, have only enough color so that the outlines of the design can show through it.

Then the spattered work is brought out by rolling with water. Now coat the lighter parts of the design and etch. Coat again and etch again, in short do as already described for the method of successive etching till the required gradations of shade have been attained. Then proceed as usual with the inking-in and printing.

IV

AQUATINT IN COPPER-PLATE STYLES AND WITH ETCHING-GROUND

Any one who has the necessary appliances of the copper-plate worker for making the aquatint ground used by them, and who has the necessary skill, can do so, although the stone is endangered by the heat, and the process is not advisable. The stone is dusted with fine resin. A flame of spirits is applied below until the stone is so hot that the resin melts and forms the ground.

Better is that copper-plate method in which the resin is dissolved in highly rectified spirits of wine and poured quickly over the whole stone. By breathing on this, the resin is made to separate from the spirits and form tiny pellets, which thus make the required aquatint ground.

Both methods are better for very coa.r.s.e work than for fine designs.

Etching-ground, dissolved in oil of turpentine, or consisting simply of tallow and put on the stone very uniformly with a cotton ball, is much better, and produces an effect similar to wash drawing. However, it is better suited to the lighter parts of a design, because it will bear long and powerful etching only if one hits exactly the proper proportions between ground and etching fluid. Therefore, it is well, after the first tones have been etched and printed, to spatter cautiously with chemical ink all those parts that are to be darker than half-tones. Thus these dots will prepare the design so well at those places that they can withstand the most powerful etching.

V

AQUATINT THROUGH CRAYON GROUND

This is a sort of middle process between aquatint and the sc.r.a.ped style.

It has the advantage of great speediness.

A stone that has been grained for crayon work is coated with the black or red gum ground described for the engraved method, but without previous etching, which would not do harm but is unnecessary. The outlines are drawn in with the needle very lightly, because they are to serve only to make the design visible. Those lines, however, that are not to disappear in the aquatint tone, but are to show plainly, must be cut as deeply as necessary for greater or lesser blackness. Then the stone is rubbed with color and washed with water as in the engraved method.

When it is entirely clean and dry, all the design will be black and the stone white. The design must be examined carefully, and the various gradations of shading should be separated in the mind into about eight leading cla.s.ses, of which four are numbered upwards to the lightest parts, and four numbered downwards to the darkest. Everything in the category of the four dark parts now is worked strongly with chemical crayon. The purpose is to ma.s.s a number of evenly separated points over these parts of the design that shall withstand the etching fluid like an aquatint ground, between which the etching fluid may eat the stone and thus form a coa.r.s.er grain than could be attained merely by rough grinding.

Then the four lighter parts must be coated with chemical ink. The very lightest parts, and all that is to remain white, must be left white on the plate and neither touched with crayon or ink.

Then the stone is etched for the first time. Following this pour clean water over it and let it dry. Then of the four dark parts the lightest are coated with chemical ink, and when it is dry the etching fluid is applied again. After washing and drying, the next lighter portions of the dark sections are coated, and so on till at last the very darkest shadows have been coated. Then a clean brush is dipped into gum solution and everything that should remain white is painted.

If a little oil of turpentine is now poured on the stone, and the crayon and chemical ink are dissolved and wiped off, the stone can be inked with soft inking-color and wiped again with a woolen rag. Then the design will look as if a black veil were over it, because the lightest parts of it and the half-shadows are not worked out at all. Wet a rag with gum solution and a little phosphoric acid, and hold it in one hand while with a fine sc.r.a.per you sc.r.a.pe in the lights according to their gradation or grind them in with a fine stone, for instance, a slate pencil. As you sc.r.a.pe wipe over the design with the wet rag; and you will see exactly what you are doing as the various gradations will appear bit by bit. The printing in this as in other aquatint methods is done with soft and thin printing-color, and the paper may be more dampened than in other forms of lithography. The press needs considerable tension and the stones must be thick.

VI

INTAGLIO CRAYON AND TRACED DESIGNS

The difficulty of getting impressions from crayon that shall not differ from the original design on the stone led me to consider the use of the grained style of the copper-plate engravers. A crayon-like design in intaglio would have a greater strength in the dark parts and greater delicacy in the lighter; be more durable and more easily corrected. I saw at once that if I could attain some perfection, it would mean a great step forward in color printing, also. Thus there were originated the following two processes, which no doubt will in time interest artists to a high degree.

A stone grained for crayon work is prepared with aquafortis and gum.

Then it is cleansed with water and covered with etching-ground when dry, as is prescribed for the etched process. The ground must be laid on so thinly and evenly that the design can be put in easily and that it still will resist the etching.

When the stone is cold and the outlines of the design have been traced on it, a sc.r.a.per of the best steel is used to sc.r.a.pe in the lights and shadows. The sc.r.a.per touches only the most elevated points of the grained surface at first, and produces larger points only after continued work, just as chemical crayon does. When the whole stone is finished, it is etched as in the etched process and then cleansed and printed in the same way.

If the stone is etched a little more strongly in all its gradations, it can afterward be ground down gently with very soft pumice, or, better still, with black slate and a gum solution, once it has been rubbed-in with color. This destroys all roughnesses that may remain from the first manipulations. Parts that have turned out too dark can be lightened by this polishing, and the over-light ones can be improved with the needle.

The designs made in this manner possess more delicacy as well as more strength than the ordinary crayon designs, and there remains to be desired only that they might have the advantage of the latter of being worked black on white, as it is so much easier for the artist to judge his work on the stone.

Of trials made in this direction, the two following ones met my views the best.

One way is to grind the stone rough, pour diluted aquafortis and nutgall over it, clean it with water and dry it. Then the design is drawn on it with a black chalk made of oil of vitriol, tartar, and lampblack. The further treatment is the same as that in the case of designs done with preparing-ink.

I have not been able to give enough time to this process to invent a preparing-crayon that shall be very hard without losing its preparing-property. However, the compound mentioned will produce a crayon with which one can work well after a few days. It has the advantage that it may be rubbed on a shading-stump made of rolled paper, which will prove excellent for working the finest shadings into the plate.

The other way is as follows: A colorless chemical ink is made of one part wax, two parts tallow, and one part soap. This I dissolved in water and with it I coated the stone, which had been ground rough and prepared with phosphoric acid, nutgall, and gum, and then washed with water. The coating was applied very lightly, but enough so that it could bear the succeeding etching.