Mezzotint

Continuing to add techniques to my repertoire, I tried a mock mezzotint in the fall of 2008. A true mezzotint creates a black plate by rocking a gritty surface on the plate, but without the necessary tools I just double aquatinted the plate to make it really, really black.


The idea with mezzotint is that you start with a black plate and burnish out the image. To make it a little easier on myself (and enjoy the nice black that I had created to start with), I used a photo taken at night aboard the SS Red Oak Victory in the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond. A friend was performing a play on board the ship about Rosie the Riveter, who was based on the women who worked in the Kaiser Shipyards during WWII.