How Rembrandt Made His Etchings | Christie's

3-Second Blueprint (English)

1. Etching draws effortlessly through a heated wax ground on copper before acid biting, yielding crisp lines of uniform width.
2. Unlike drypoint—which carves metal directly to raise a burr—Rembrandt built rich shadows through multi-directional cross-hatching.
3. Masking background areas earlier in the acid bath kept Saskia's lines pale while biting foreground self-portrait recesses deeper.