"Magical secrets are quickly grasped. They open doors to fresh ways of seeing and understanding. Artists use aquatint, a form of etching, to create delicate washes, velvety blacks, and intricate layers of color impossible in other art media. In this book, the third in a series about etchings, Emily York discusses 46 aquatints by 32 artists, with special attention to fascinating sequential works by Richard Diebenkorn and Al Held. Emily York is a master painter at Crown Point Press, a publishing workshop where artists have been creating etchings since 1962. She ties processes directly to art, and with clear writing and abundant illustrations explains the aquatint processes of spit bite, sugar lift, soap ground, and water bite. She also details steel-facing and multiple-plate printing, and gives step-by-step instructions for making your own aquatints. Anyone who cares about art will enjoy this book, and anyone who makes etchings will find it indefensible. The included DVD demonstrates the processes, and the accompanying website provides ongoing information about printmaking."--Publisher's description.

Cultural Writing. Art. Essays. MAGICAL SECRETS ABOUT THINKING CREATIVELY: THE ART OF ETCHING AND THE TRUTH OF LIFE by Kathan Brown is a new volume in the Magical Secrets series published by Crown Point Press in San Francisco. What are Magical Secrets? They are ways of setting yourself up for thinking creatively, for a sudden understanding, something like a miracle. Kathan Brown learned the Magical Secrets in this book by helping artists of extraordinary acclaim make etchings. She founded Crown Point Press, now probably the world's most influential etching publisher, in 1962. In this book, you'll meet sixteen artists who will be remembered by future generations. Kathan Brown knows them well, and with pictures and graceful, inviting prose she shares with you their ways of working, thinking, and being.

Crown Point Press in San Francisco, founded in 1962 by Kathan Brown, is a world-renowned center of contemporary printmaking. It has published work by such major figures as Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Sol LeWitt, and Wayne Thiebaud, while bringing to attention prints by many younger artists, including April Gornik, Anish Kapoor, Eric Fischl, and Francesco Clemente. Crown Point Press is known for presenting social and political issues in a range of printmaking media, from hard- and soft-ground etching to drypoint, aquatint, and mezzotint. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquired the Crown Point Press archive in 1991. This collection of nearly 800 works contains one impression of every print the Press has ever produced. Also included are over 2000 working proofs and preparatory sketches. Now, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco has organized an exhibition of these distinctive prints. Chronicling Crown Point Press's dedication to artistic quality and commitment to innovation in printmaking technique and subject matter, this book also presents Kathan Brown's notable contributions in transforming the printmaking landscape of the twentieth century. Published in association with The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Cultural Writing. Art. Includes a DVD. Brian Shure has expanded and revised his popular CHINE COLLE: A PRINTER'S HANDBOOK to create the fourth book in Crown Point's MAGICAL SECRETS series. In this new edition, Shure gives step-by-step instructions for printing and pasting to a support sheet, and adapts chine colle techniques for working with collage and mounting paper, fabric, and other materials with or without a press. Additional chapters discuss sizing paper or fabric, gold leafing, and scroll mounting. Examples of chine colle prints and step-by-step techniques are illustrated in color.

Ever since its original publication in Germany in 1938, Max Schweidler's Die Instandetzung von Kupferstichen, Zeichnungen, Buchern usw has been recognized as a seminal modern text on the conservation and restoration of works on paper. To address what he saw as a woeful dearth of relevant literature and in order to assist those who have 'set themselves the goal of preserving cultural treasures, ' the noted German restorer composed a thorough technical manual covering a wide range of specific techniques, including detailed instructions on how to execute structural repairs and alterations that, if skilfully done, can be virtually undetectable. By the mid-twentieth century, curators and conservators of graphic arts, discovering a nearly invisible repair in an old master print or drawing, might comment that the object had been 'Schweidlerized.' This volume, based on the authoritative revised German edition of 1949, makes Schweidler's work available in English for the first time, in a meticulously edited and annotated critical edition. The editor's introduction places the work in its historical context and probes the philosophical issues the book raises, while some two hundred annotati

This practical new paperback edition explains the full process of etching, covering traditional techniques in depth and introducing modern ideas when they add to mark-making capabilities. Illustrated with lavishly finished examples and clear step-by-step sequences, this beautiful book covers the basics of etching - the materials required, how to prepare a plate, and ways of making marks using hard ground, soft ground and aquatint. Other etching techniques are covered including spit-bite and sugar lift, and how to transfer images onto the plate using photo etching. Engraving techniques are shown with various ways of making the plate without acid: drypoint, line engraving, stipple engraving and mezzotint. Advice on printing is given including papers and inks, the printing process and more advanced techniques such as colour printing and editioning.

"An exploration of historical and contemporary fine art printmaking, with an emphasis on the roles and processes of the artist, master printer, and publisher"--