Asleep in Rome 4.75x4.75 Dry Point with Watercolor
Drypoint on plexiglass is a nice alternative if you don't have buckets of acid laying around to etch metal plates. Draw your image directly on the plexi, and use a whistler's needle - or twisted scribe - to cross hatch toothy, ink-holding textures where you want darks. Every line you scrape is a trench to hold a little bit of ink.
I've cross hatched on top of the cross hatch to ensure that enough pigment will adhere to the areas where I want darkest darks. Dry Point prints a softer line than an etching, so I've found that you really have to dig - and do so at an angle - to kick up a bur in the plexi. It will give more of a curb for the ink to hold on to.
Laying brown etching ink on the plate with a bondo scraper. Each ink application, and each trip through the press squashes the tooth of the line work flat, so it holds less and less ink, and prints really light after a handful of impressions. Dry points are usually printed in smaller editions than etchings as a result.
I could already see after wiping the plate that I had to do more line work & cross hatching to hold enough ink to get the darks I wanted.
Pulling a test proof to use as a reference for more work on the plate. This proof was painted later with watercolors (at the top of this post), and I finally got darker darks after subsequent cross hatching (image below).
Asleep in Rome 4.75x4.75 Dry Point with Watercolor
Drypoint on plexiglass is a nice alternative if you don't have buckets of acid laying around to etch metal plates. Draw your image directly on the plexi, and use a whistler's needle - or twisted scribe - to cross hatch toothy, ink-holding textures where you want darks. Every line you scrape is a trench to hold a little bit of ink.
I've cross hatched on top of the cross hatch to ensure that enough pigment will adhere to the areas where I want darkest darks. Dry Point prints a softer line than an etching, so I've found that you really have to dig - and do so at an angle - to kick up a bur in the plexi. It will give more of a curb for the ink to hold on to.
Laying brown etching ink on the plate with a bondo scraper. Each ink application, and each trip through the press squashes the tooth of the line work flat, so it holds less and less ink, and prints really light after a handful of impressions. Dry points are usually printed in smaller editions than etchings as a result.
I could already see after wiping the plate that I had to do more line work & cross hatching to hold enough ink to get the darks I wanted.
Pulling a test proof to use as a reference for more work on the plate. This proof was painted later with watercolors (at the top of this post), and I finally got darker darks after subsequent cross hatching (image below).
3 comments:
It's so great that you share so much of your process. Thank you!
Another beauty, Belinda! Thanks for all the 'how-tos'...
Thanks for sharing this, Belinda! I really enjoy reading about your process (not to mention the beautiful images you come up with).
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