Art terms explained

(just the few I’ve used in the website)

Cyanotype

Cyanotypes are one of the oldest photographic printing processes in the history of photography. Combining ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide makes an iron-rich solution sensitive to light. The solution is then coated on to paper (in the dark). The chemicals react to UV light when exposed, creating ferric ferrocyanide, also known as Prussian Blue. After exposing the coated paper to sunlight, the last step in the process is to thoroughly wash away the sensitiser solution with water, and the blue darkens as the print dries. When it’s dry a cyanotype can be bleached, and then toned with tannins in a variety of ways for different results.

Monoprint

A monoprint essentially means a print that is unique, one of one. You can make a monoprint in a huge number of ways - but the image is always made on a perspex or metal plate in some manner before the ink is transferred from the plate to the paper - either using an etching press or a roller. It allows for very different mark making and experimentation.

Monotype

Sometimes you can use the ‘ghost’ of the previous print and add to it in any number of ways to create new unique images, this can give a series of different images that have some links running through

Etching

Etching is an intaglio printmaking process in which lines or areas are incised using acid, into a metal plate in order to hold the ink. There’s a huge number of ways of doing this. A plate may be treated and submerged in acid again and again before the image is built up to be what the artist wants. When ready to print, ink is applied to the surface, then wiped off again so that ink only remains in the grooves. The printmaking paper is submerged in water for some time to soften it before printing, it’s then blotted, and put through an etching press with the plate - the pressure applied allows the ink to be transferred from the plate to the paper. The plate needs to be cleaned and re-inked for each run through the press.

Chine colee

A technique, used in conjunction with printmaking processes such as etching or lithography, that results in a two-layered paper support: a thin paper, cut to the size of the printing plate, and a larger, thicker support paper below. Both the tissue and the support sheet are placed on top of the inked plate and run together through the printing press, sometimes with a thin layer of adhesive between them to reinforce the bond produced through the pressure of the press. The process creates a backdrop to the printed image.

Aquatint

This is an intaglio printmaking technique. By the nature of an etching if you want to create tone you need to give the surface a rough texture to create recesses in the plate for the ink to stay. For the tone (and texture) to be consistent, printmakers cover the plate with a porous ground of fine particles of acid-resistant material, using an aquatint box to contain the particles. This acid-resist is melted onto the plate by heating the plate from below, before the plate is immersed in an acid bath. A variety of tone can be achieved by varying the length of time in the acid bath. Don’t try this at home!