Disney Etchings Biography

The Disney etchings which are each individually hand colored using watercolor paints are Disney etchings and not Disney lithographs. An Etching is an artistic printing technique. The word "etching" comes from the Latin word "radere", which means scrape or scratch. Many past modern masters artists including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso worked with this centuries old hand-printing technique.

With a steel engraving needle the artist scratches the design into a varnish-covered zinc or copper plate. In an acid bath the newly created lines are etched to the desired depth. After this process, the varnish is completely removed and the surface and the edges of the printing plates are polished.

For every printing, the printing plate must be rubbed with the printing color and then the surface must be cleaned again. So the printing color only remains in the deeper, etched lines. The printing is done with a hand-driven printing press on wet hand-made paper. After drying, the etchings are hand-colored with watercolor paints. There fore every original etching is actually a one-of a-kind and unique piece of art, thus the term disney etchings that are hand water colored.

Then they are hand-signed and numbered in the order of reproduction with the number of creation and the number of total printed pictures.

For Example 25/500 means this etching was the 25th print of a total amount of 500 prints made from this printing plate. Therefore every original hand colored etching is actually a one-of a-kind and unique piece of art.

Each original animaton art etching is made and imported from Germany. These lovely one of a kind etchings feature a memorable scene or image of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Snoopy or many other loveable characters. Each etching was re-designed by skilled artisans from original artwork in the Disney studio archives. The etchings are all hand-numbered limited editions and can be ordered individually or in matching sets of 12. They are an excellent addition to any gallery, collectible shop, gift store, childs room or personal collection.