Copper Plate Engraving Process

In modern manufacturing other chemicals may be used on other types of material.

Copper plate engraving process.

The finished result is quite beautiful when skillfully done. Woodcut is the opposite of this in that all unwanted matter is cut away a relief process whereas the lithograph is drawn directly onto and reproduced from a flat surface. Copperplate engraving and printing originated around 1450 about the time of johann gutenberg s system of movable wooden type. Steel gives a much harder wearing plate that could be used for thousands of impressions before signs of wear appeared.

The breakfast dish fish pictured here and on the cover is a fantastic example of a copper engraved printing plate and shows the engraver s skill in all its glory. As a method of printmaking it is along with engraving the most important technique for old master prints and remains in wide use today. Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin the result may be a decorated object in itself as when silver gold steel or glass are engraved or may provide an intaglio printing plate of copper or another metal for printing images on paper as prints or illustrations. The practical discussion that follows however will be concerned solely with copper engraving an intaglio process in which the printed detail is cut into the plate.

Today most printing plates are made by machines but fine artists still make engraved plates in order to create prints. The metal plate is covered with a liquid acid resisting ground. First invented simply as a method of replicating an image intaglio printmaking has evolved over centuries into an art form in it s own right. Engraving drypoint and etching are essentially media.

The wood engraving is considered what type of process. Decorative engraving and scene depiction are achieved by using a series of burins or gravers to carve lines into the copper by hand creating the desired design. Before any engraving could begin the illustrated design needed to be transferred onto the copper plate s surface. In his 2009 publication the art of the printmaker 1500 1860 roger baynton williams suggested that many engravers chose the etching method to essentially bite in this initial outline.

These images are also called engravings. Steel also allowed much finer detail to be engraved which would quickly have worn on a copper plate. Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio incised in the metal. In this video andrew raftery creates a copper eng.

Copper plate etching is a traditional form of printmaking that delivers beautifully crisp line work and a wonderfully unique aesthetic.