Mezzotint
The mezzotint works in the opposite direction of the drypoint, and forces your movement, along a uniformly scratched plate, to become the moderator. With the wrist you have to apply pressure with a stubborn insistence and determination to smoothen the irregularities, in a sensitive yet cerebral search for the light that reveals the shapes. Michelangelo would have said that the black surface contains every possible figure, it just takes work to “lift them out”. But great care should be taken, because an overdose of technique stifles expressivity in the language of forms.
