Intaglio Dragons All The Way Down

chapter 3: The Multiple Print Project



Artist and printmaker Professor Giulia Cezzano stood at the high printing table, a variety of zinc plates and wood blocks along with their respective prints laid out in front of her. Cole tried to focus on the instructor’s words, but Ava was beside him, and his concentration dragged away to her instead. Her breathing was slowing after her panicked run to class, and the sound reminded him of her fading pants after they’d made love. Letting go of her hand, he slid his fingers to her back, rubbing absent circles, his own breathing quickening at her nearness.

“Feels good,” Ava murmured, leaning into his hand.

Cole chuckled. Praise like that wasn’t going to help his concentration at all.

At the front of the class, Giulia began pointing out the various prints, talking and gesturing happily to the equipment around her.

“Since the start of the course, we’ve been working primarily with mono-printing and relief prints,” she said, pulling out a carved wooden block and running her fingers across the surface. “For the next unit, we’ll be starting to work with intaglio...”

Giulia laid out woodblocks while she talked, then picked up a heavy silver plate and a print of the image made from it, passing them around the table. The image looked like a pencil sketch of a little girl at a piano. The cuts were incised with precision, the simplicity of the image refined down to an individual line.

“...this one here,” Giulia said, “is my daughter, Lucia. It’s dry point, which means I’ve used a needle to cut a line into the zinc plate. When ink is applied, it fills the lines, and then it can be printed to reveal them. Rembrandt did many of these prints. They’re the most like drawing of any of the printing approaches, and you can create some really interesting effects with the technique. It’s a very immediate art form...”

Ava pushed into the movement of Cole's fingers. Feeling a knot of muscle that had formed a ridge in Ava's lower back, Cole switched to his thumb and the knuckle of his forefinger, kneading instead of rubbing. She moaned quietly under his ministrations and he grinned, digging his fingers harder into the band of muscles.

Another plate came by as the students passed them around. Ava gave it a cursory once-over before handing it back to Cole. It was a rendering of a river-bottom flower, the detailed shading of the image created in crosshatches.

“...and the second print that I handed out,” Giulia explained, “is an etching. In yesterday’s class, I showed you how to apply resin to a plate and use the acid baths to reveal the lines you’ve scribed into it. Well, today we get to start playing with that. The print of the yarrow was created by etching. That’s yet another way that you can work with a plate... another form of intaglio...”

Next to Cole, Ava turned, her voice pitched low.

“Keep going,” she whispered, “harder... lower...”

Cole’s body jumped to attention at the sound of her voice. Ava knew exactly what those words made think about. He grinned, thumb pushing harder into her muscles, heading down her spine.

“...The last print I want to show you,” Giulia continued, “is one that’s created by burnishing with oil. It’s a technique called mezzotint, and it’s similar to dry point in that you roughen or damage the surface...”

Giulia lifted a small T-shaped tool, handing it to a nearby student. The tool had a serrated surface on the curved base like a meat texturizer. As Ava reached forward to take it, the low waist of her jeans flared open. Cole dropped his fingers inside. Ava squeaked in shock, swivelling back around, tool in hand. Her cheeks flooded with colour, her chest rising and falling in rapid pants. Again the memories of her under him flashed to mind and Cole smirked.

“Sorry... was that not low enough?” he asked, falsely innocent (secretly glad that they were sitting at the back, his hands hidden from view.) Ava giggled, sitting up once more in a semblance of studious interest. Cole’s fingers ran back and forth along the lacy edge of her panties, and he watched her struggle not to squirm.

“...for mezzotint, you stipple the entire surface of the plate with the mezzotint rocker to create burrs in the plate's surface,” Giulia said, her grey head bobbing. “It’s a lot harder than you’d think. I suspect a few of you’ll be complaining about tired arms by the end of class...”

Cole dropped his fingers lower, brushing the curve of Ava’s ass.

“Cole!” she hissed. It was a warning, her voice breathless.

“Yes...?” he answered, laughter at the corners of the word. His fingers paused for a moment.

“Don’t,” she commanded, voice wavering.

Cole chuckled, his fingers picking up the movement once more, teasing along the line where the fabric met the soft skin of her back.

“Ava, I’m trying to listen to the directions here,” he said with an exaggerated sigh. She scowled at him, then jerked as his fingers dropped lower.

“Cole....” she warned again, and a jolt of excitement lodged in his groin. It was very much like the noise she made when she was begging him for more. He was glad the table was blocking his lap from view, and even happier that Giulia was continuing her discussion of the project at the front. Right now, the prof was holding a variety of new tools aloft.

“...and once you have a solid black plate, you use a scraper and a burin with oil to burnish in the lighter areas of the image. Essentially you’re filling it in with light rather than dark in this case...”

Cole leaned closer, his mouth directly next to Ava's ear. To anyone watching, it’d appear he was whispering some thought on the discussion.

“I want to f*ck you, Ava Brooks,” Cole whispered, lips brushing the shell of her ear. “Right here. Right now.”

“Cole,” Ava whispered. “Please...” She flushed from her chest up to her ears and Cole had the inappropriate urge to kiss her in front of everyone.

“Please what?” he asked darkly. “I like it when you beg.”

“Don’t!” Ava growled, catching his fingers, preventing him from moving.

He raised his eyebrow, trying to pull his hand back, but she held it tight. Up at the front, the professor sighed, calling to them.

“Cole and Ava,” she said dryly, “could I get your attention? I want to make sure that everyone understands this next project.”

With an embarrassed cough, Cole pulled his hand out of Ava’s grip.

“Sorry, Giulia,” he said, dropping his voice bashfully, “I was asking Ava about her project for the Student Show. Sorry, should’ve waited until break.”

Giulia smiled indulgently.

“I’m sure we’re all looking forward to the Student Show, but let’s focus on this for now.”

He nodded, and class continued. Ava waggled her eyebrows in admonishment, clearly trying to hold in her laughter. Giulia was now pointing out the series of plates before her.

“For this long-term project, you’ll be working on ten different prints,” she explained. “You will have to create each of the ten prints by altering a single plate...”

There was a murmur of concern as the project’s parameters suddenly crystallized. A single image was hard enough, but with ten images being created on a single plate, the challenge became exponentially more difficult.

“... you need to obscure the image each time – either by etching in, or altering the design, or using a mezzotint rocker on the surface. I’d suggest starting simple at first... perhaps just dry point, because the more completely you use the plate, the harder it is to obscure it next time. Keep in mind you need to totally change your design, and the deeper you dig into the plate, the more difficult it is to alter it. I’m going to warn you,” Giulia said, lifting the dry point needle in the air. “Don’t cut too deep in your first prints.”

“But what if we do dig too deep?” a girl in the front asked. “What happens then?”

Giulia reached out to the side, pulling up a print stained with inky shadows, but within its depths, the faint outlines of something else. An echo of what it had been still visible in the second plate.

“Cut too deep,” she said, “and your image will keep coming back again and again, no matter how many times you rework it.”