Mezzotint Essentials: sensible solutions for a notoriously difficult medium

I'm a printmaker and I love to read about and watch process. This is a great "Here's how I do it" book for the experienced and beginner mezzotinter. We all Have to figure out how to get what we want in a process and this book tells the story of the things that Robert De Groff has figured out to get the the prints that he wants. Thank you Robert for sharing this with everyone.

Sogar eine Bauanleitung für den Wiegemesserhalter. Sehr gutes Buch,aber Achtung: auf Englisch

C'est un excellent livre (si vous suivez l'anglais). Très simple, très pédagogique. L'auteur est quelque un d extrêmement technique et simplement il nous donne toutes les billes (berçage, affûtage, encrage, impression). Ses conseils sont pratiques, développés et simples. Les photos et schémas sont très parlants et permettent de comprendre rapidement les subtilités techniques de la manière noire. C'est vraiment un livre que je recommande ! Merci a l'auteur c est vraiment trop trop bien!

When I purchased this book, I had never done a mezzotint and although intrigued, I was intimidated by the time and skill required to make it success of it. Even talking about it with other printmakers was met with guffaws and furthered evidence that I was a naive dreamer. I was apprehensive about trying it as the method appeared so difficult that it would require direct instruction from a professional mezzotint artist. One would need to scale a mountain in the Himalayas and seek Art Werger to beg his instruction.Clearly, that was not likely to happen and so I more or less abandoned the thought lest I succumb to madness. As fate would have it, in a cat-infested print studio, a pair of wine soaked lunatics recommended this book as it just came out. Despite their purpled teeth and the billowing clouds of cat hair swirling around, I clung to their suggestion and bought a copy myself. I could not be more impressed.First, this is an instruction book and all writing is in service to you making a great mezzotint. This book contains a detailed, thorough and comprehensive step-by-step guide on the process. There are insightful and easy to read diagrams and photos throughout that complement each point the author makes. For a visual medium, it is incredibly helpful to pair each lesson or point with a photo of. A lot of work must have gone into capturing all of the images included.Second, this book includes examples of what NOT to do. Such instructive mistakes are sorely lacking in many art guides but I believe is a critical pedagogical tool. It is not enough to say how to do something, it is important to understand why and what the consequences are of not doing it the recommended way. I would prefer to skip making rookie mistakes (though I probably still will anyway).Third, this book is well written. That is a rare occurrence in instruction guides that can easily be dry and uninteresting reads. By keeping the writing casual, clear and with some cheeky commentary, De Groff has written a guide that is simply a compelling read by itself, which also helps in consuming something requiring so much detail and so many steps. This is a master-class in how an instructional guide should be written.Fourth( I don't know why I am numbering these), this book is just a great printmaking book and not exclusively a book about mezzotint. The guides on paper, preparation, scraping and drying prints are all illuminating. Inside I would stumble across a point that finally explained why I got some mysterious problems I had had on previous prints. Who knew paper had a grain?!All and all, this is a substantial work of artistic generosity in the printmaking world. Printmaking struggles with fewer and fewer experts who can share their knowledge with future artists and here Robert De Groff has made a guide that is comprehensive, concise and will stand the test of time. This is the finest art instruction book I own. Instead of confirming my doubts about the difficulty of the process - it has transformed my apprehension into eagerness and confidence. My naivety is still intact though.

For those students and fine artists with a reluctance to take the "plunge" into the mysterious media of mezzotint... have for the first time a roadmap to follow with meticulous, easy to follow instructions on thisnearly forgotten discipline. Thank you Robert for another masterpiece!Stan McBride ~ stanmcbride.com