Pre-rocked Plates - $45
 
Mezzotint is known for dramatic chiaroscuro images in which lighter tones emerge out of rich, velvety black. This medium requires no toxic chemicals and is made with only three tools— a rocker, scraper and burnisher. First you start by texturing the copper plate so it will print as black and then you create the image by smoothing down the texture with a burnisher and scraper to bring out the grey passages and white highlights. The handling of a burnisher on a mezzotint plate is similar to working with a pencil on paper. In class we will use a roulette to ground the plate, but we will cover the use of mezzotint rockers and proper use of scrapers and burnisher to bring out the most in the plate.