Soap Ground

Talking with Brian. I discussed how I wanted to work on three plates using white ground to see the different responses.

Copper, Steel and Zinc.

First off it was about making the ground.

30g Grated Soap,

30g Linseed Oil

30g Titanium White Pigment powder.

Once mixed it had the consistency of double cream. This could be watered down using water if a thinner painting quality was required.

THEORY:

The Soap ground applied in varying thickness layers will act like a sugar lift within the acid. The thin layers will lift first allowing the plate to be bitten.

Subsequent layers depending on the amount of soap ground will lift giving a tonal painted quality to the print. Normally I use layers of stop out varnish but this creates ‘staged’ tonal prints.

So that’s the theory. What about the practice.

This is my aquatinted copper plate, soap ground applied; after placing in acid mix 1:20 for 10 + 1 minute.

The remaining soap painted white areas will be the whitest tone on the print. The plate was cleaned with Limonene and meths This removes both aquatint and soap medium.

Inking and wiping as normal.

I was really pleased. The darks were as dark as I required and the whites high! The painterly marks along with the tonal variation was successful. This was the answer to my dark plates that I normally produce. I can see I will work with this technique further.