Digital Imaging

Art 242 (Advanced to 344)

This course will use the computer and drawing to produce full color images in a traditional print media, intaglio etching. Through a series of lecture demonstrations, there will be an introduction to hands on drawing experience, plate preparation and Photoshop visual imaging software. A non-toxic photographic system will be used to translate and extend the imagery created on the computer. As the course progresses, we will be concerned with the interaction of digital and drawn visual vocabulary.

This course provides instruction in drawing, so previous drawing experience is not required. Experience with Photoshop is also not required, although some computer literacy would be useful.

This course is designed as an introduction to the intaglio process. Intaglio, the formal name for etching, traditionally means removing metal by acid erosion, filling the resulting grooves (or lines or textures) with ink, wiping away the excess ink, and then under pressure applied by a press, transferring that inked image to a piece of paper. As the process suggests, how the metal is exposed to the acid (a very dilute nitric acid) determines the quality of the inked line or tone. The intaglio surface can also be produced by photoreactive surfaces, which will be our connection to the image produced on the computer. By using a transparency created with computer software, traditional etching vocabulary can be enrichened by the combination of digital and hand drawn ideas.

There will be three intaglio images produced in this course. The first image will be a drypoint, where we literally scratch a drawing into the zinc plate. An image made this way is less durable than an etching, however, drypoint possesses extraordinary qualities and will provide an excellent entry to the range of inking and printing methods. The two images to follow will be etchings and will be a combination of hand drawing and drawing with the computer.

The accumulation of etching vocabulary will be careful and deliberate. There will be thorough demonstrations for every new technique. Slides and illustrations will provide a concise history of the medium, beginning with the age of Rembrandt and moving to contemporary images.

The technical nature of etching will begin with application of the ground. The etch ground provides the plate with protection from the acid. This is necessary if the drawing marks are to be isolated from the expanse of the plate when the plate is submerged in the acid. The ground is petroleum based and so is impervious to the effects of the acid/water solution. This presents the opportunity for etching: wherever the ground is removed or scratched, the metal plate is exposed. The exposed metal, in even the thinnest line, is completely receptive to the corrosive action of the acid solution. The character of the line is determined by the length of time the acid is allowed to bite the plate. The more time in the acid roughly equates with a deeper line and therefore more space to hold ink.

The assignments will highlight the essential strengths of Etching and Photoshop: the visceral, autographic touch of the plate and the print and its layers of ink and the selecting, transforming, and layering of pixels on the computer. Both media can construct images by layering ideas to complete a project, and this forms the basis for an especially close communication. Since the printed image will in all cases be the end result of each project, Etching vocabulary will be discussed first. This will be followed by the introduction of the software and the merging of the two approaches. A considerable amount of time will be given over to issues of drawing: composition, line quality, tonal range, illumination. Etched lines can be removed, and they will be removed, and re-etched. The etched plate retains a viability that belies the technical nature of its production. It is in this area of exploration against a background of technique that the course is oriented.

Home | Screenprinting | Monotype | Etching | Exhibition

You may also want to visit the Department of Art and Art History at Providence College