Aquatint prints are original art prints similar to water colours.

Aquatint prints are art prints made through an ancient intaglio technique. Aquatint is a variant of etching.

Like etching, aquatint technique involves the application of acid to make marks on a metal plate. But where in the etching the artist uses a needle, in the aquatint he sprinkles a powdered rosin, colophony, which is acid resistant, to create tonal effects.

In etching and aquatint the artist can use a zinc or copper plate.

First I begin by putting powdered rosin in a piece of cloth that I close with a string forming a little bag. Then I shake it lightly over the plate to make the powder fall, trying to distribute it evenly all over the surface.

I then heat the plate melting the powder, forming a fine and even coat.

I cover the areas I want to keep totally white - such as highlights - with an acid-resistant varnish. There are different kinds, you can use the blue alcohol varnish that is use in etching technique.

I have to plan carefully the full work from light to dark because it can become difficult to work when large areas of the plate are covered with varnish.

I keep the plate in acid for very short periods of time - from a few seconds to 1 minute. A test may be made with biting times noted because even a few seconds can vary the depth of the biting. Of course the more the plate is in the acid the darker the area will be.

Before immersing the plate in the acid bath, I cover its back completely with scotch tape to protect it from the biting.

I dip the plate in acid producing corrosion that holds ink in the final phase of print.

I progressively protect any areas that have achieved the right tonality and immerse the plate again in acid for the darker areas.

I repeat the bath in acid, "morsura" in Italian, again and again until I reach the result I desire.

Creating aquatint prints is a very difficult intaglio technique infact the pure technique is used by few artists, mostly they use a mixed technique with etching and aquatint together.

After making a proof print, if I find that an area is too dark, I can lighten it using a burnisher to smooth the aquatint texture. I move it on the area of the plate that I want lighter, over and over again, thus lowing the marks that had been created. After this procedure they will retain less ink, thus producing lighter marks.

When the bath in acid is completed, the metal plate, like for etching technique, will be then put through a printing press with a damp sheet of paper. The pressure will transfer the image from the plate to the paper.

With the plate the artist will print a limited edition of copies and will sign and number them with a pencil.

The edition, the number of etching and aquatint prints, will be chosen by the artist.