the maid

christine schuhbeck‘s figurative photography is the starting point for her aquatints, whereas the end result almost returns to abstraction. schuhbeck experimented in photoshop to carve out shapes with filters and came across a setting that simplified an image to its minimum. schuhbeck reduced the picture to its basic shapes, lines and tones and the result was a simplified representation that emphasised the core composition. schuhbeck worked on the project for almost two years, finding the perfect shapes and tones, reproducing the layers of different tones in photoshop, and pondering the right medium to print or reproduce. she tried woodcut, painting, and silkscreen, but always saw them strongest as aquatints. the aquatint technique is one of the most challenging in gravure printing, and her experience in etching an aquatint was far from adequate. it took a long time and numberless tests to get to the perfect point of where the plate wanted to be.

aquatint is a printing technique that, unlike drypoint etching, produces tonal gradiations and shading throught etching. it originates in the 7th century. by dusting and melting resin powder onto a copper plate, a grainy surface is created (the same principle as mezzotint, where ink later settles in the depressions) by using an acid resistant varnish, the desired image is applied onto the plate and then immersed in an acid bath. the areas previously covered are protected from the acid and remain whgite on paper during printing. uncovered areas print black. by repeated covering and etching, delicate gray tones to deep blacks can be achieved.