Katsunori hamanishi studio 54

Katsunori Hamanishi
Born: 1949, Hokkaido
Medium: Mezzotint, with relief printing and metallic foil. Also a few woodblocks

Hamanishi studied painting and graduated from Tokai University with a degree in Art, in 1973.

Since then, he has been living in the Tokyo area, where his primary focus is printmaking.

Katsunori hamanishi studio 54

Mezzotint is a variation of intaglio printing–an exacting and laborious process whereby ink is transferred from below the surface of the plate by use of a press. First, the entire copper plate is indented with a toothed steel rocker tool.

Worked in all directions, this creates an even finely-grained texture over the surface of the plate. Each pit will hold ink and were the plate inked at this stage, it would print almost solid black.

To create the design the artist smoothes out some of the pits with a burnisher so they will hold less ink.

Where highlights are required the plate is burnished and polished quite smooth. A wide range of tones are possible in mezzotint and th