Mezzotypes

One of the advantages to using the ImagOn photopolymer process is its flexibility of techniques and results. These mezzo types are just one example of technique. Firstly, they are are coined a “mezzotype” as they are meant to mimic a traditional “mezzotint”. There are certainly benefits to this process (not having the painstaking process of rocking the plate) but I feel that there are disadvantages as well (the plate is much more delicate and it is a little trickier to get the subtlties of values within the plate). Just like mezzotint you are working backwards from dark to light. After an exposure with an aquatint screen and processing in a soda ash bath, the plate would print as a solid color. Working with either a burnisher or thin layers of silkscreen filler, the gray tones and whites are added to the plate. This method allows for a more painterly image.