Editing Printmaking (section)

=== Aquatint ===
<div style="width:35%; float: right; margin: 10px; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #8888aa;">Artists using this technique include
[[Francisco Goya]],
[[Thomas Rowlandson]],
[[Jean-Baptiste Le Prince]],
[[William Daniell]],
[[Norman Ackroyd]]
</div>
{{main|Aquatint}}
[[File:Plate 43 from 'Los Caprichos'- The sleep of reason produces monsters (El sueño de la razon produce monstruos) MET 22AA BG05R4.jpg|thumb|upright|''The sleep of Reason creates monsters'', etching and aquatint by [[Francisco Goya]], c. 1797–98|left]]
A tonal technique typically used in conjunction with [[Intaglio (printmaking)|Intaglio]] techniques, especially etching, and printed in the same way. Like etching, aquatint technique involves the application of acid to make marks in a metal plate. Where the etching technique uses a needle to make lines that retain ink, traditional aquatint relies on powdered [[rosin]] which is acid resistant in the ground to create a tonal effect. The rosin is applied in a light dusting by a fan booth, the rosin is then cooked until set on the plate. At this time the rosin can be burnished or scratched out to affect its tonal qualities. The plate is then exposed to acid, to which the rosin particles are resistant, and tonal variation is controlled by the level of acid exposure over large areas, and thus the image is shaped by large sections at a time.  Very often it is combined with conventional etching.  Printing gradually wears away the rosin grain, and many fewer impressions can be printed than in the traditional intaglio techniques before the tonal contrasts weaken, perhaps only 100. The popularity of the technique in the 19th century, combined with this weakness, probably played a role in the rise of the [[limited edition]] print.  

Contemporary printmakers also sometimes using airbrushed [[asphaltum]] or [[Aerosol paint|spray paint]], as well as other non toxic techniques, to achieve aquatint due to rosin boxes posing a fire hazard.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-01-28|title=Exploding Rosin Box|url=https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-rosin-box/526753|access-date=2021-07-24|website=Straight Dope Message Board|language=en}}</ref>

Goya used aquatint for most of his prints.  After his death, later printings wore away the aquatint grain almost completely, leaving only the etched lines and faint tonal shadows.<ref>Griffiths, 150–151</ref>

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