What is Etching?
Traditionally etchings are printed in sepia, but you can print in colour. Here is a guide on how to use multiple colours for a single etching.
How do you get different colours with an etching?
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Traditionally etchings were printed in sepia and hand coloured using water colours. It is possible to print in different colours though. Nicola prints by putting the different colours onto the plate where she wants them to be. Remember that the aquatint produces different intensities of the same colour. She then uses newsprint to blot the excess ink from the plate, so as to keep the colour where it was originally put. She then finishes off the plate using tissue paper. She also sometimes uses this approach to mix colours on the plate itself. This approach means that she can produce a coloured print in a single stage.
An alternative approach is to build colours up by using two or more plates and printing one on top of the other, similar to the way a coloured linocut or screenprint is created.
Back
Traditionally etchings were printed in sepia and hand coloured using water colours. It is possible to print in different colours though. Nicola prints by putting the different colours onto the plate where she wants them to be. Remember that the aquatint produces different intensities of the same colour. She then uses newsprint to blot the excess ink from the plate, so as to keep the colour where it was originally put. She then finishes off the plate using tissue paper. She also sometimes uses this approach to mix colours on the plate itself. This approach means that she can produce a coloured print in a single stage.
An alternative approach is to build colours up by using two or more plates and printing one on top of the other, similar to the way a coloured linocut or screenprint is created.
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