Progress

Difficult to get the camera angle right, I've done more work on the left hand fall than appears from these images. All the white areas are now roughed out although they need much more scraping and then burnishing so that they will print as white. With the lightest and the black areas worked out I can now work through the greys from these extremes. The plate size for this is 200mm x 300mm.

Lumb Falls

This week I've begun a new mezzotint print of Lumb Falls at the head of Crimsworth Dene near Hebden Bridge. Working from a sketch made at the end of last summer after a period of heavy rain which left the beck running in full spate.

My original watercolour field sketch is on the right. Using this and a photograph taken at the time I made a pencil drawing at the size of my plate (200mm x 300mm). I scanned this drawing and then reversed it before printing it out and transferred it onto the plate using typists carbon paper.

Now begins the long job of engraving, starting with the fiddly bits of sky showing through and around the trees at the top of the plate. Once this is done I'll move on to the white areas of foaming water on the falls themselves. These are the two lightest areas of the print and once I've established these I can work back to the darkest areas.