bachelor of the fine arts hereI've always wondered if the etching process people do for this is similar to preparing a plate for an intaglio print. It sounds identical, you apply a ground, and then let the acid eat around that.
Have you ever tried using grounds that one would use for an intaglio etching? It's a mixture of asphaltum, rosin, beeswax, and maybe some mineral spirits to thin it out. You paint a thin layer on, and then draw onto the plate with a needle or something like that. The ground comes up really easily, so you scratch it away to make your drawing. You dunk it in acid, and wipe away bubbles with a goose feather while it etches, bubbles are the enemy because they can help the acid get underneath the ground and eat away metal you don't want gone. When it's etched as deep as you'd like you wash away the acid, and clean off the ground with mineral spirits.
From my understanding it seems like this process may be easier because you don't have to fuss with printers and irons and things. If you find the hard ground to difficult to work with you could also just dilute asphaltum with mineral spirits, and use it as a ground, that's harder to scratch into, so you would paint out the negative of your image.
here's a demonstration
Naturally when you make the print there's some more steps, because your image ends up on paper. But, you can still see the image on the plate, especially once you get some ink in it. Here's an end result of the type of printmaking I'm talking about
Am I crazy, and would this not work for some reason?
