sugar lift aquatint
Sugar lift aquatint is a technique which imparts soft brush stroke textures to an intaglio plate. Picasso often employed sugar lift in his image making. A mixture of sugar and water is brushed onto the desired areas of a plate following a rosin aquatint. When the sugar lift solution has dried, a layer of acid resistant hard ground or varnish is applied to the entire surface of the plate and left to dry. The plate is then immersed in a warm water bath and rubbed gently until the sugar mixture "lifts off" taking with it the corresponding hard ground. The plate is then placed into an acid bath to etch the open areas of the plate revealing the brush strokes - hopefully...