Surface tone

rdf:langString Surface tone

rdf:langString In printmaking, surface tone, or surface-tone, is produced by deliberately or accidentally not wiping all the ink off the surface of the printing plate, so that parts of the image have a light tone from the film of ink left. Tone in printmaking meaning areas of continuous colour, as opposed to the linear marks made by an engraved or drawn line. The technique can be used with all the intaglio printmaking techniques, of which the most important are engraving, etching, drypoint, mezzotint and aquatint. It requires individual attention on the press before each impression is printed, and is mostly used by artists who print their own plates, such as Rembrandt, "the first master of this art", who made great use of it. Before the invention of tonal intaglio techniques such as mezzotint and aquatint surface tone was really the only way to add tonal effects, but the technique sometimes continued to be used with the new tonal techniques, especially in the etching revival than began around 1850, the "most visible characteristic of [which]... was an obsession with surface tone". This was perhaps under the influence of Rembrandt, whose reputation had by this point reached its full height. According to Antony Griffiths and others, the technique should be distinguished from accidental plate tone caused by slight imperfections or scratches in a new copper printing plate, which hold the ink and show in the print. These generally disappear after a few impressions are printed, and are taken as a sign that an impression is a very early one. However some scholars use the terms as synonyms. Especially in the case of Rembrandt, the degree of surface tone used can vary greatly between impressions, and it is often only discussed in works such as catalogues which cover specific impressions, and ignored in those discussing a print in a general way, as other impressions may lack it. Especially if heavy, it also tends to reproduce badly in book illustrations, smothering detail, and is often avoided for that reason. A note at the start of the most widely available book reproducing all Rembrandt's prints explains that, where possible, impressions without surface tone were selected for this reason.