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Materials for Printmaking

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Materials for Printmaking A COMPARATIVE STUDY. OF CONVENTIONAL AND EXPANDABLE ACIn RESISTANT STOPOUT MATERIALS FOR PRINTMAKING A Creative Project Presented to The School of Graduate Studies Drake University In Partial Fulfillment ot the Requirements tor the Degree Master ot Fine Arts by Lyle F. Boone January 1970 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONVENTIONAL AND EXPANDABLE ACID RESISTANT STOPOUT MATERIALS FOR PRINTMAKING Lyle F. Boone Approved by Committee: TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • 1 The problem • • • • • • • • • • • 1 Definitions of terms used • • • • • • • • 2 Lift-ground • • • • • • • • • • • 2 Ground • • • • • • • • • • 2 Rosin • • • • • • • • • • • 2 Stopout • • • • • • • • • • • • 3 Procedure • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5 II. THE CONVENTIONAL METHOD OF STOPPING OUT • • • 7 Conventiona.1 Uses of Shella.c Stopout with Ha.rd and Soft-ground • • • 8 Conventional Use of' Shellac Stop,·ut with Aqua.tint • • • • • • • • • 13 Conventional Materials for Li.ft-ground • • 18 III. NON-CONVENTIONAL METHODS OF USING EXPANDABLE ACID­ RESISTANT STOPOUT MATERIALS • • • 22 Non-conventional Stopout with Ha.rd and So.ft­ ground • • • • • • • • • • • 24 Non-conventional Materials for Aquatint • • • 26 Non-conventional Materia.ls with Lift-ground • • 29 IV. CREATIVE APPLICATION OF FINDINGS • • 38 v. CONCLUSION • • • • • • 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • • • 54 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Print Containing Hard and Soft-ground Etching, Aquatint, Copper, Size 8" x 11-1/2". • • • 12 2. Area Indicating Shellac Breakdown, Containing Hard and Soft-ground Etching, Aquatint, Zino, Size 8" x 6" • • • . • • • • • 14 3. Aqua.tint, Hard and Soft-~round Etching on " ff - Copper, Size 8 x 12 •••••• • • 15 4. Print Containing Lift-ground, Aquatint, Hard­ ft ft ground Etohing, Copper, Size 4 x 6 • • • 20 Print Containing Aquatint, Copper, Size 4 tt x 5" 7. Print Containing Aquatint, Zinc, Size 4" x 5" • 30 8. Print Containing Aquatint, Copper, Size 4" x 5" 31 Print Containing Aquatint, Hard-ground Etching, Copper, Size 4" x 5" . • • • 32 10. Print Containing Aquatint, Hard and Soft-ground Etching, Copper, Size 6ft x 8" • ••• 33 11. Print Containing Lift-ground" Aquatint, Copper ft (Spray Gum Rubber), Size 4' x 6 •• • • 35 12. Print Containing Lift-ground, Aquatint, Zinc, (Workable Fixative), Size 4" x 5" . • • • 36 13. "Dad n Containing Lift-ground, Aquatint, Hal'd­ ground Etching, Copper, Size 13-1/2 x 16" • 39 I)-A. Area Enlargement of Figure 13, "Dad" Containing Lift-ground, Aquatint, Hard-ground Etching, Copper, Size 13-1/2" x 16" • •• 40 iv X llll lL~ - [i.. 15. and Sof't­ 1.s~,· C'-,] ,~c/"'11 ]{ L~3 16. UnJEUl Larva, II nal esis Print sine: Con­ ventional Materials Containing Lift-gpound Aquatint, ard and Soft- round tching, f?-~;'-"n "':::'~l'ZA 17ft -r 20H 1~--ll.lC, ,oJ 0 i .A.c... • 44 7 1- ; . ed Illg H COy) tain iTI£? ltquatint, Li ft- r8ufld, and Sof't- round ching, Copper, Size 7 n x 12 H • ~ 45 I F~ -' . 1\ 19,0 ({ Elegmce, i1 Con tainin fI Li ft-r:round Aquatint, Soft- r und Etching, Copper, 11 diz'3 II x 1'':1 "1 1 -f~. nLJre 1-), 3.C e­ ft- r~:,)uri{J u3.tint. , . (t '" t"" ft Ctlll1;~, (~o 1,7 e r, " xl" '_+ I ntH CDnT in u:ltirlt, :3,r a:rld iric, lze 12 ft x 16' ::mt of~ 1 ure Peon 20. c n~l bceis Print 21 DD­ C:):n v ll'Gl.. >lter:i ~lls ',]JI'3 t nlrl r:~~ u:ri d j '] 3 n c , ) rc' "'" /' tf "'I r'7n }~ 1 f')" tchln ; .1-, /_.' '-.J CHAP I erimenta.tion baf:l alwa.,Vs played an important role in gra bie::, ,3.nd in the P9St three decades, adventurous artists have tried virtually every conceivable material in rna n int liD prints. As long as creative people handle tools ~nd m~terials, un xpected things will happen. Artists , will inve t, nDt by intent, blJt by necessity.L . .... p time of the industrial revolution, p.r1rlu­ m~kers hqve b en deluaed th a v9.riet of llneH matel~ialstl roduced for the m~st part J_D ~ccDrdance with the demands of the lrtists. ese \'11 materials!! 14ere essentially the or i~proved m~teri~ls e :nseos of~ t e "q.. f-v, p:t V f ~;ld recipes '11'1(1 rnaterig,ls, C '3 1 topout for int liD rl tma n o 1 prcjec s ., '1 , .L xi 1 r, 2 referred to in this thesis as non-conventional materials) offer defjnite advant es to the printmaker when working Lnt 1] 0 compar9.­ tive study of tb charac eristies of expandable aeid­ resistant materials and those of the conventional materials. e cODventional products lJsed were spirit v8.rnish, lift- round sDlutions, and rosin. There are two types of S '(; i r i t varn i s b : 1 i qui d r 0 8 in an d 8 bella c . th ,vi 11 be Chapter II, par raph 2. Definitions of tGr~s used. purposes of cl~rity, the followin definitions of terms used in this creative report gre furnished: he l'j1~e ~nd the roun~ is lqid aver lIte :JSlt) th"lt D3.rt to the r'~,u:n • ~1:n, ~'Lt'_,,_-,~_~l,. r-~_-"--'L'P-,~-'_:-~, '_~l__ ~ ~ Dec en 3 1~1et~1_ E lj(, r .J.n '-;8 .=t - ,'_ .r_ ~ ~ ~ scr~tcbed e q i. n or is thrJu 2:i 1 '--.t.....:::... co­ _ 1 -cr -" , ( t 3 Stopout. Stopout is a substance that prevents certain etched lines within the ground from being bitten by the acid. Though satisfactory, the conventional methods had some disadvantages. These disadvantages are discussed in the later chapter on conventional methods. Methods that employed both traditional and expandable acid-resistant materials will be discussed in later chapters. In this comparative study, the writer tried to over­ come the limitations of the traditional materials by experimenting with expandable acid-resistant products. The non-conventional materials used were polyvinyl (lift-ground), spray gum rubber (aquatint), and workable fixative (aquatint, hard and soft-ground). Although, technically speaking, poly­ Vinyl was not used as a stopout in the lift-ground process, it was incorporated in this discussion because of its specific importance to the lift-ground process, and to printmaking in general. These expandable products all have two common bases: Latex and/or resin. There are two types of Latex: natural and synthetic. Natural Latex is a liquid, contained in the bal"k of Heves. brasiliensis trees, which exudes when the bark is cut. As it is collected, the Latex contains about 30 4 per cent or resins, proteins, and asb, and tbe remainder being water. The use of synthetic Latex has increased tremendously in tbe past two decades. l Tbere are tbree types o£ sytltbetie Latex: polystyrene­ butadiene emulsion, polyvinyl acetate emulsion, and acrylic emulsion.2 Polystyrene-butadiene emulsion is the basis for tbe water tblnnable latex emulsion paints tbat are now being Bold and used in enormous quantities. Polystyrene is a bard, colorless, brittle resin that is tack free at room temperatures. Polyvinyl aoetate emulsion consists of and I water, sur£ace active agent, protective colloid, ;,1 catalyst. The polyvinyl acetate is, by itself', too i ! brittle to be used as is. Plasticizing materials of one < j ,I type or another must therefore be added to give it the I necessary degree of f'lexibility. Acrylic emulsions depend to a large degree on tbe type of alcohol (either ethyl or methyl) from whicb tbe acrylate or metbacl'ylate ester is prepared. Besin is a solid or semi-solid amorph­ ous i'uaible natul'al ol'ganic substance tbat is translucent and yellowish to blaok in color. It is, like latex, i'ormed from plant seeretion8 and is soluble in either butyl (a strong form of alcohol) or denatured aloohol.J There are various kinds of synthetic resins, the most outstanding being Polyvinyl Cbloride paints, varnishes (shellao and liquid rosin) and adbesives (spray gum rubber). It is used in ohlorostannio acid and cblorostannous acid on rubber.4 lIbid., pp. 246-241. 2~. 3Ibid • 4Dean H. Parker, princi~lbi of Surface Coating Tecb­ nology (New York: Interstate ui9ber, a DIvIsion of~n gilay and Sons, 1958), p. 304. 5 Expandable acid-resistant materials and the conven­ tional materials were alike in one important respect--their transparency, which allows the artist visual contaot with his plate. Procedure~ Because ot the limited number of books written on both the conventional and non-conventional methods, the writer obtained most ot bis information through personal experimentation witb the media. In addition, letters were written to tbree well-known printmakers asking for informa­ tion on expandable acid-resistant materials in regard to the intaglio processes. These letters were sent to the following: Gabor Petardi (assistant professor ot Art at Hunter College, New York); Jules Heller (University of Southern California); and Mauricio Lasanaky (University or Iowa). The writer found that these people had not used non­ conventional materials for printmaking. Test plates were used to determine various properties of both the conventional and expandable acid-resistant materials under the conditions of a number of different intaglio processes: aquatint, hard-ground (etching), soft­ ground (texture), and lift-ground. From this testing, the writer eliminated many of the mechanical problems of the esthetic and conceptual problems and to utilize the inherent oharacteristios of a flexible medium. 6 The test plates resulting from these experiments indicated the advantages of expandable acid-resistant materials over conventional materials. Tbe most significant of these advantages was being able to correct atopout mis­ takes without regrounding the plate. Tbe newly-discovered method of correcting stopout errors and its advantages to the artist are diseussed in Chapter III, Section One.
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