The process of printmaking is, in itself, a fine art. This process is not to be confused with the reproduction of original art often sold in shops and museums, which is created by photographing and mechanically reproducing the photo by various print methods.The fine art of print making has been around for centuries, and requires the artist to create his image on various surfaces onto which ink is applied by hand to reveal his image on a surface, such as paper. The finished work is often referred to as a fine print or an original print.

Relief printing is the oldest form of printmaking. The artist carves the image into a block of wood. The unwanted areas are cut away to leave the protruding remaining image as the surface from which the print will be made.

Intaglio printing is the opposite of relief printing, as the desired image is incised into a metal plate.

Intaglio processes used in producing limited edition prints from metal, such as copper or zinc, can be divided into two broad categories, depending on whether an image is etched with the aid of chemicals for an etching, or cut into the metal by hand to create a mezzotint, engraving, or dry point.

The process of etching is fairly common and most people are familiar with it having seen fine examples by Rembrandt and Goya. The graphic process of etching has come a long way over the years.

Within the last ten years, a process which once used dangerous, toxic chemicals and solvents has now become non-toxic and environmentally safe. A copper plate is covered with a coat of acid-resistant, wax-based substance called a ground. The artist draws with a steel etching needle through the hard-ground to expose the copper, without actually cutting into the metal itself.

Once the image has been drawn onto the plate, it is immersed into an etching tank of ferric chloride which etches the bare metal lines drawn by the artist. The result after the ferric chloride has burned is a line etching of the image. The hard-ground is cleaned off and a proof of the line etch is printed.

To add various tones to the line etched image, an aquatint procedure is performed. Resist is painted onto the areas the artist does not want etched, then a fine mist of hard-ground is sprayed onto the entire surface with an air brush. The plate is placed into the etchant, which will etch in between the fine dots of the spray. This process is repeated over and over again, always stopping out areas the artist no longer wants etched, until the darkest tones are reached. In between each aquatint, a proof of the image is pulled to see what areas need further work.

The mezzotint process is making a dramatic comeback from being a lost art, earlier in Japan and Europe, but now in the United States as well. Invented in the early 1600s by Ludwig von Siegen, the mezzotint was primarily used for the reproduction of paintings for books due to the textural quality and wide range of the gray scale one could achieve, which was not capable in etchings, dry point or engravings. A mezzotint print produces a complete deep velvety black which only this technique is able to produce.

In the case of mezzotint, the surface of a polished copper plate is first entirely roughened with a special tool: the mezzotint rocker, a stainless steel tool with a sharpened, serrated half-round blade which will roughen the surface with a row of tiny pit marks when “rocked” back and forth. As the artist rocks the surface of the plate, following a pattern of criss-crossing and overlapping passes, the pitted surface gradually consolidates to produce a rough, almost velvet surface.

The entire process of rocking a plate may take up to 15 hours or more. The artist begins to develop an image on the plate by smoothing back down areas of the roughly textured surface using a scraper and burnisher made of stainless steel. This allows the artist to pass gradually through the range of intermediate grey shades to absolute white in areas where the surface is completely smoothed back down.

In both etchings and mezzotints, the finished plate is inked by hand and carefully wiped, leaving ink only in the recessed areas. The plate is then placed onto a printing press and a dampened piece of paper is placed on top. Under tremendous pressure, all is run between the single steel roller and the bed of the press. The moistened paper is pressed into the ink-filled surface of the copper plate. This procedure must be repeated for each print, resulting in a set of hand-pulled prints which are signed and numbered by the artist, producing a true limited edition of original, or fine prints.

Bob Coronato creates his western art etchings by adding a final step called Chine Collé. He cuts a piece of Chinese rice paper and lays it onto the finished plate. Applying a glue to the back of the rice paper, another piece of watercolor paper is laid on the rice paper. The two pieces of paper are pulled through the press and the result is a collage of the two papers with the ink on the surface. The rice paper, which is highly absorbent, accentuates fine detail in the final etching.

“The subjects of my work remind people that there still is a remote, free west. It gives a sense of relief, that it’s not a completely modern country, just yet.” — Bob Coronato

As a horsewoman and a biologist, Christine Ford loves both western subjects and wildlife. She has a profound respect for animals and nature and feels committed to portray the kindness in a horse’s eye, the textures of an animal’s fur, or the simple pleasure of being out in the natural environment. A representational printmaker, illustrator, and painter of horses, horse-related subjects, birds and animals in the wild, she researches her subjects carefully and strives to capture every detail.

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