Sunday, April 29, 2012

Almost done!

Hello everyone, I am back in the land of living!  I have pretty much finished my essay and we just have two weeks to go before I hand in my portfolio and that will be my first year over with.  The essay has been a marathon for me as I am just not used to writing them, but it has been fascinating too.  My subject changed three times in the process!  I ended up writing about Vija Celmins and Sol LeWitt.  Two very different artists, both fascinating.  There are many videos about both of these artists online, and some very good time lapse ones of LeWitt's accomplished 'professionals' and 'apprentices'.   I love this one.

I have also been experimenting with photo etching.  Here is my latest print.  The image came from focusing in on one of my drypoints, and enlarging a small area.  I drew the image onto drafting film with lithographic crayon and lots of charcoal and graphite.  It was then exposed onto a copper plate, which I had previously rolled with photo sensitive emulsion.  The plate is developed in Sodium Bicarbonate and warm water and hardened with UV light.  After this I put an aquatint over the whole plate, and put it in the ferric, and stopping out various areas with Brunswick varnish to create the different tones.  I have to say that the emulsion did not set properly so some of it peeled off but I decided to go with the happy accident and rather like the effect.

Photo etch 3  - 25 x 25 cm

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Mezzotint test

 I was very fortunate to be sent a test plate which is only about 1 x 1.50 inches from Martin Maywood and I finally decided on the image to use on such a precious item!  You may know that a mezzotint is where a copper plate has been previously rocked all over so that if it was printed without any image it would be completely black.  You work from dark to light, burnishing and scraping out to create the lights. 



Mezzotint inspired by photograph taken on my walk down to Aunt Agnes' house


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Happy Easter everyone!

I can't believe that my first 'year' is coming to an end.  I have spent the last few weeks experimenting, trying to move away from drypoints for now.  I have had quite a few failures and some of them rather interesting.  I have tackled aquatint and photo etching from my own drawings.  There are so many different ways to create an image and this is what I absolutely love about printmaking.
Drypoint, Aquatint and Mezzotint plates.  It was all getting a little complicated!

Last week I went back up to Scotland with friends and we went on this very long hot walk up Coulter Fell and back.  The views were incredible, and the weather amazing.  Spring has arrived and disappeared for a few days, which is selfishly just as well since I now have to write my essay.  

I wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Garden ii drypoint - I keep working on this one.
Garden drypoint
Bud ii - Photo etch from own drawing on drafting film
Bud - Aquatint










View from Coulter Fell, Scotland
Real Cowslips!