Mezzotint

Mezzotint is an engraving technique developed in the seventeenth century which allows for the creation of prints with soft gradations of tone and rich and velvety blacks

John Martin
*Plate from ‘Illustrations to the Bible’: Belshazzar’s Feast* (published 1835)
Tate

The process involves indenting the metal printing plate by rocking a toothed metal tool across the surface. Each pit holds ink, and if printed at this stage the image would be solid black. However the printmaker creates dark and light tones by gradually rubbing down or burnishing the rough surface to various degrees of smoothness to reduce the ink-holding capacity of areas of the plate.

The technique became particularly popular in eighteenth-century England for reproducing portrait paintings.

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Engraving

Engraving is a printmaking technique that involves making incisions into a metal plate which retain the ink and form the printed image
Ink

Ink is an ancient writing and drawing medium in liquid or paste form, traditionally black or brown in colour – though it can also contain coloured dyes or pigments
Tone

The lightness or darkness of something – this could be a shade, or how dark or light a colour appears
Print

A print is an impression made by any method involving transfer from one surface to another