The Exes

The print, published by Warren Editons was printed by master printer Zhané Warren and printer Janet Mbirimi at Warren Editions Studio.

Georgina Gratrix used aquatint and spitbite aquatint for the execution of the marks.

Aquatint is a way of making tones. Despite the “aqua” in its title, the aquatint process does not involve water. It was invented in the mid-eighteenth century to simulate watercolour drawings. With aquatint one can capture a complete tonal range from a hint of a tone to mid-tones to shadows and darks. Aquatints can be airy like those in the etchings of Paula Rego to velvety like those in the etchings of Pablo Picasso.

Aquatint is made by a dense collection of tiny grains melted onto the plate and functions as a porous ground; each grain or clump of grains becomes an island that protects the plate, which the acid will bite around.

The most common means of applying the grains is with an aquatint box, made for creating and containing a rosin dust storm. After the dust storm is created, the plate is slipped into the box to collect the grains as they fall. Then it’s taken out and heated to melt the grains for them to adhere to the plate once cooled.

Spitbite aquatint involves, painting directly onto a rosin-covered plate with ferric chloride to achieve gestural tonal gradations that seem to be similar in appearance to ink washes and/or loose watercolour marks.