Chien Yu Lin's 15-Step Aquatint Process Revealed in Diaristic Prints
Chien Yu Lin, who grew up in Taipei and honed her skills in Japanese and Chinese ink painting, encountered aquatint etching while in Vienna. Her approach to printmaking begins with spontaneous ink sketches, which she subsequently transforms into series of prints. This intricate process consists of 15 stages, including tracing, refining a copper plate, varnishing, etching with ferric chloride, and applying tonal effects with rosin powder. Lin's latest creations showcase vibrant colors and a sense of spatial composition, as seen in works like Indoor and In the Car. She aspires to encapsulate fleeting moments from daily life, likening them to chapters in a book, and wishes her art to evoke an abstract perception of time, akin to a sun obscured by clouds before a rainstorm.
Key facts
- Chien Yu Lin grew up in Taipei and trained in traditional Japanese and Chinese ink painting.
- She discovered aquatint etching after moving to Vienna.
- Her printmaking process always begins with a free, intuitive ink drawing that feels like writing a diary.
- She selects drawings to develop into a print series only after accumulating a body of them.
- The 15-step process includes tracing, polishing a copper plate, applying varnish, cutting lines, and etching in a ferric chloride acid bath for 20 to 25 minutes.
- She degreases the plate with ethanol and soy sauce before aquatint.
- Tonal work involves rosin powder fused with a heat gun and varnish to protect areas from further biting.
- Her newer work uses more saturated and vivid colour tones with multiple plates and incorporates more spatial structure, as in Indoor and In the Car.
Entities
Artists
- Chien Yu Lin
Locations
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- Vienna
- Austria