Hard-Ground using FUTURE acrylic floor finish

Since FUTURE comes as a clear liquid you may want to add a small amount of blue food color, Batik dye, or watersoluble India Ink so that it is easier to see the hard-ground drawing on the copper plate. An alternative to adding a dye to this hard-ground would be to ink the plate up with Graphic Chemical water soluble relief ink after the FUTURE had dried on the plate.  

Materials: 

  • Future Acrylic Floor Wax
  • Photo Processing tray
  • Colorant for the Future Floor Wax (Food coloring, batik dye, or water-soluble India ink
  • Disposable Latex Gloves
  • Plate drainage rack
  • Copper plate
  • Degreasing mechanism / material for copper plate
  • Etching needle

If you are making a test plate, proceed with this and the following steps for both plates: 


Prepare Copper Plate  

(for more complete info see Basic Plate Preparation Handout)  

  • The metal (preferably roofing copper) plate is thoroughly sanded with an electric finishing sander and 320 grit wet-and-dry sandpaper and the sanding residue removed with a clean rag.

Apply Acrylic Hard Ground 

  • Wear disposable latex or rubber gloves
  • Pour Future Floor wax over degreased plate, hold over photo tray
  • Prop plate near vertically in the photo tray.  Support the plate with one hand against the plate while pouring Future directly from the bottle with the other hand.  Pour from the top of the plate so that the Future cascades down the plate surface.  This action helps to break down the surface tension and allow for a more even coating.
  • The FUTURE is poured over the entire plate from the upper most portion so that a veil of acrylic FUTURE covers the entire plate.
  • Avoid air bubbles on the plate.  If air bubbles occur "push" them off with another flow of the acrylic.
  • After the plate is coated, remove it from the tray carrying it between the palms of your hands.
  • Prop the plate up on newsprint to allow the Future to run off the bosom of the plate onto the newsprint. Reposition plate backward several times to allow more Future to run off and not build up as a thick layer at the bottom. 
  • When the run off ceases, Set plate in vertical plate rack
  • Pour any Future residue from the photo tray back into bottle and wash the tray in the sink with water.  Excess dry acrylic residue can be removes by first soaking it in a mild ammonia solution (5:1 ammonia).
  • Let plate dry. (Apx. 20 minutes - 1 hour)

Hard Ground Drawing Techniques 

  • Make your drawing with the etching needle. Remember to reverse the image, so that it will appear correctly when printed.
  • Any drawing implement that can cut thorough the ground can be used as a drawing tool. 
  • The tool should glide freely through the ground exposing the metal.  If the instrument grabs or sticks you are pressing too hard.
  • Other drawing tools:

    • ....mezzotint rockers 
    ....roulettes 
    ....burins 
    ....star wheels used to mark fabric 
    ....DremelTM tools (grinding attachments)

Prepare plate for the Etch 

Protect Back of Plate 

  • Seal the back of the plate with packing tape, contact paper, or a couple of coats of acrylic floor finish.  When the plate is dry, cover the back with contact paper or overlapping strips of plastic, self-adhesive (Scotch brand) wrapping tape to prevent the ferric chloride from biting the back of the plate. 
  • When finished with the drawing stage and ready to etch the plate, make a vertical tape hanger by sticking the tape across the back, and creating a tail of apx 18" to suspend the tape in the etching solution.
  • Write name on tape, can take notes on tape.. 

Etch in Ferric Chloride 

  • Lines will print light or dark depending on how long the plate is in the ferric - not the pressure int he drawing.Immerse the plate in the tank of ferric chloride to etch it. You will probably want to make a small test plate the first few times that you do this to see how different times affect the width and darkness of the lines you make.
  • To create areas with more delicate lines, "stop out" lines before they have etched as deeply as lines which you want to be darker and richer. The deeper and wider the groove in the metal, the more ink it will hold and print, creating darker areas. Many different line weights can be obtained in your image by successive stopping out.
  • The etching bath will bite into the surface of the copper which has been exposed by your drawing. 
  • Ferric Rated at 42-49 Baume (45) 
  • The length of the bite to achieve desired results is based on experience with the etch. I deep line etch can be achieved in 30 minutes - 1 hour. 
  • To keep some lines lighter that others it  is necessary to "Block-out" areas. 
Blockout technique(s) 
Clean plate after removal from Ferric 
  • Remove plate from Ferric. 
  • Rinse with cool water 
  • De-oxidize with white vinegar and table salt solution (3 T salt to 1 cup water). Rinse. Dry plate. (copper oxidizes - in the ferric chloride and needs to be cleaned )
  • Rinse with water 
  • Blot dry and then with hair dryer 
  • Use acrylic hard ground as a stop out by painting out the lines that need to be blocked out.  It is important to use two coats for this making sure that the first coat is dry.  Two thin coats are better than one thick coat.  Thick coats can crack when they dry. 

Progressive tonality 

  • Begin by drawing your dark lines. 
  • Etch. 
  • Remove from ferric. Rinse. De-oxidize with white vinegar and table salt solution. 
  • Rinse with water 
  • Blot dry and then with hair dryer 
  • Add lines. 
  • REPEAT 

Hard-ground washes 

    Disturb the hard ground surface while it is wet.  
    • Impress with textures. 
    • Paint with brush charged with water to create wash like tonalities. 
    Disturb the hard ground surface while it is dry. 
    • Tusche like washes 
    • Re-dissolve the ground and open up areas of the plate using a mild ammonia and water solution and Q-Tips..  The stronger the solution the quicker ground is removed. 

Cleaning the ground off the plate:  

  • If the plate is etched within the first day the Future can be removed with a soda ash solution consisting of 1 teaspoon of soda ash in 1 litre of water (Same as the ImagOn developer).
  • As the acrylic goes through an extended hardening/curing process over a 24 hour period the soda ash solution will not work after the Future has been on the plate for more than 12 hours. After this time a 10% solution of ammonia and water, Mr. Clean, or Comet cleanser is needed to remove the Future. 
  • There are non-ammonia smelling floor strippers that are also available for removing FUTURE. But caution should be exercised with these products. 

Proofing the plate  

  • The plate can be proofed at any point without the need to remove the Future. The final edition can be printed without removing the Future. The Future provides a glass like surface to the copper plate which makes it extremely easy to wipe not only facilitates wiping but also is a great way to selectively add or subtract plate tone. 
  • Cotton buds dipped into a mild ammonia solution can be used to selective remove the FUTURE to allow plate tone to infiltrate the printed image. This presents an image manipulation opportunity that should not be ignored.and avoids unwanted plate tone.

Using the FUTURE as a stop-out varnish:

  • FUTURE can also be used to "stop out" areas that you do not wish to etch while other, adjacent areas of the plate remain in the Ferric Chloride solution.  
  • Use two thin coats of FUTURE rather than one thick coat. A thick coat has a tendency to crack (which may be of great interest to some printmakers). If you feel that the actual store bought FUTURE is too liquid, leave it out for a few hours in an open photo developing tray to allow the water particles to evaporate from the acrylic. Monitor this evaporation until it reaches the desired viscosity.
  • After rinsing your plate with water, check the depth of the etch with your fingernail, and look at it through your magnifying glass. You can prook it without removing the FUTURE, and if it is too pale, you can etch it further.

Reworking Techniques for the Etched Plate 

more complete info see Reworking the Etched Plate Handout

Colored ink tips  

  • When working with colored ink, a solution of 50% Future and 50% water can be used to coat the entire plate. This thin coating does not block up even very fine marks yet serves as an effective barrier for the inks from contamination by the metal 

Print 

Clean Up of Printing Plate and Inking Station 

  • Vegetable oil (canola) , degrease with magnesium carbonate