Etching needle

Here, rather than the etching needle, a brush dipped in sugar and ink forms the marks on a plate that the acid eats away and exposes.

This was achieved with some remarkably fine wood cuts, the pen and ink and etching needle work by artists such as George Collingwood, Lionel Lindsay, Roy Davies, Adrian Feint, Raymond McGrath, Sydney Ure Smith, Sydney Long, Pixie O'Harris to name just a few.

The final essay on drawing, entitled 'Rembrandt's Reach', considers how, whether in drawing or etching Rembrandt's 'imagined spaces' invite 'our direct participation through the very process of their making', whether with pen or etching needle, and a similar approach is taken earlier to the woodcuts of Titian, particularly his 'graphic mural', the Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea.

Then, a design was scratched away with an etching needle. Next, the etcher dipped the plate into acid, which ate away the uncovered areas and cut the design into the metal.