Printmaking 7 : Etching and Drypoint Proofs

 First thing I did in my printmaking class was to put some paper into soak for taking proofs of my etching  but I had ( almost) instant gratification as there some paper already prepared in the blotter. Applying ink and the wiping it off again always seems counter-intuitive  but I loved the marks and the 'foul-biting'  where the hard ground wax wasn't thick enough. Shame about the unintentional mark across the middle  which occurred I think when I was applying the parcel tape to  the back of the plate and didn't give due care to protecting the front. Anne- Marie scanned  my proof and printed off some copies so I can play with  working out which areas  to use  2 different tones for aquatint. 

Meanwhile I did some more work on my drypoint plate of sand ripples.  Although also an intaglio technique, as it's printing from the rough burr produced from scoring into metal rather than a groove from acid etching, the  printed lines on the proof were either too harsh or too subtle compared to the plate itself ( below). Again, I have some scanned copies to  plan what to do next. 

Develop your Drawing 5; Printmaking 6

This week on drawing course at city Lit  we were exploring properties of pencil: the different marks of  2H, HB, 4B  during the warm-up observing the outlines and shapes of a tangled heap of tools borrowed from the sculpture room.

Then we chose 1 item to do a large  close-up on a A1 sheet after filling the whole sheet with a mid tone. Despite using several  2B pencils in each hand  it still took a lot of time and effort - I was so ready for my coffee and Portuguese custard tart ! The coffee holder was just what I needed to prop up the wrench - the photo is deliberately blurred  by the way.

Later in the print class, I traced a section of  the mudflat photo I've also been using as inspiration for my collagraphs , then turning it over and using carbon paper, transferred the  main lines  onto the hard ground  plate I prepared last week.

Then I worked into  it a bit  inscribing the wax with a biro,  trying not to do too much as will be using the same plate for aquatint and possibly soft ground

Then 4 minutes in acid! Picked up some additional unwanted marks somewhere along the way ( the wax layer was very thin), I'll just have to incorporate them somehow into the design. No time to make a proof , that will be the first task next week.

Very difficult to take photos of such shiny images but I wanted to record the stages for my sketchbook.