Modern Techniques and Processes Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The official key gives Dry-point, Metal Engraving, Line Etching, Aquatint. Aquatint is the latest of the four, invented in the eighteenth century, and line etching came after engraving in the sixteenth century. The first two places, drypoint and engraving, were both fifteenth century techniques, and the key's order is accepted here.

Option B starts with line etching and option A and C put aquatint second, before engraving and etching, which cannot be right because aquatint is the latest of these techniques.

Answer: C

The key gives Frame, Exposing table, Printing table, Squeeze as the order in which the materials of silk screen printing come into use. The screen frame is the base on which the mesh is stretched, the exposing table is used to expose the stencil or photographic emulsion on it, the printing table holds the paper during printing, and the squeegee is drawn across the screen to push ink through.

The other orders start with the squeegee or with the tables, before the stencil exists, so a screen cannot yet be printed.

Answer: D

The correct sequence of steps is Drawing, Maquette, Carving, Finishing. A sculptor first makes drawings to plan the idea, then builds a small model or maquette to work out the three dimensional form, then carves the final material, and finishes the surface last.

Option A starts with carving and has the maquette after the drawing, so the plan comes after the work. Option B puts the maquette before the drawing. Option C puts finishing before carving and the maquette last. These orders do not match the working process.

Answer: B

In lithography the drawing is made on the stone with greasy materials, and the stone is then treated with gum and acid. When the washout solution is spread over it, the black drawing pigment dissolves and comes out, and the grease that has set into the stone remains as the printing image, which later takes the ink. The solution does not smooth the stone, it does not carve the drawing, and it does not make the stone more sensitive. The answer is option B. Prints are then taken after the stone has been rolled up with ink, which sticks only to the grease.

Answer: A

Aluminium is amphoteric, so it is attacked by strong alkalis such as caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), which dissolves it by forming aluminate, and the key gives caustic soda for etching aluminium. Concentrated nitric acid makes aluminium passive rather than etching it, ferric chloride is the usual mordant for copper plates, and sulphuric acid is used in other metal processes. I did not find a printmaking source to confirm this item, so the explanation follows the key, option A.

Answer: D

The key gives Gutenberg as the inventor of movable type: Johannes Gutenberg built the first European printing press with movable metal type at Mainz around 1450. Movable type had been invented earlier in China by Bi Sheng, who made clay types in the eleventh century, but that name is not offered. Homer is the ancient Greek poet, Eric Gill was a twentieth century typographer and sculptor, and Carol Summers is a modern American printmaker, so none of them invented type. The answer is Gutenberg, option D.

Answer: B

The key gives ferric chloride (printed here as ferric chloric acid) as the mordant for etching copper plates. Ferric chloride, an iron salt, bites copper evenly and without gas bubbles, which is why many printmakers prefer it today. Nitric acid is also used on copper and is the classical etchant for it, so option D is a defensible second answer, but the key counts ferric chloride. Hydrochloric acid is used with potassium chlorate in Dutch mordant, and sulphuric acid is not the usual copper etchant. The answer follows the key, option B.

Answer: C

The key gives the assertion as correct and the reason as wrong. In soft ground etching the plate is covered with a soft waxy ground and then smoked to help it dry and set, and pin holes in a very thin ground are a problem, so the assertion matches the practice. The reason, as worded, gives a remedy that the key does not accept. I could not confirm the detail from a printmaking source, so this follows the key, option C. Smoking is done with a wax taper held under the plate, and the soot is meant to darken the ground so the lines drawn through it show clearly.

Answer: B

The key gives the sequence resin dust, ground, nitric acid, printing for the materials used in aquatint, which is a process in which resin dust is sprinkled on the plate and melted to make a porous ground, the plate is etched in acid so that tones form between the grains, and then it is cleaned and printed. The order of the materials in the key is the one printed in option B. I could not reconcile the placing of ground after the resin dust with a printmaking source, so the explanation follows the key.

Answer: A

The key gives carborundum powder, Arabic gum, tusche and washout solution as the order of materials in lithography. The stone is first ground with carborundum, the drawing is made with tusche (greasy ink), the stone is treated with gum arabic and acid, and the drawing is washed out before inking. The key's order is the one in option A, and I could not confirm the exact order from a printmaking source, so this follows the key. Gum arabic protects the non printing parts of the stone, and tusche is the greasy ink that forms the drawing.