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.

Mezzotint Workshop

Just back from an enjoyable weekend running a mezzotint workshop at my friend Alan Birch's Prospect Studio. One of my favourite places to go. Always a friendly welcome and groups of enthusiastic printmakers willing to take on something new. Of the eight artists, 4 had been on a workshop that I had run here last year but the others were new to the technique. Working on plates around 3 inches by 4 inches these are excellent results from just two sessions of 6 hours each.

The plate above I feel is an amazing piece of work from someone trying the technique for the first time. More incredibly this photo was taken after only 3 hours of  work.

Lunar

After some reworking of the plate I'm finally happy with the new mezzotint of the full moon. My initial intention was to show the full face of the moon brilliantly lit against the soft black background. This however just looked flat without any impression of a globe shape. So I re-rocked the right hand side of the plate (the left side of the print) to darken it, and when I wiped the plate after inking left some plate tone here to further darken the edge. Although not how I had originally planned this print to look I'm much happier with the result.

Luna

Mezzotint

200mm x 150mm

New Year and the last print of the old year.

Engraved in the days following Christmas and printed on New Years Eve this is my last print of the old year. Almost 40 years after I made my first, I've finally got around to making my second Wood Engraving.

Saxon Cross

Wood Engraving

127mm x 101mm

Edition of 20

Printed with black Litho ink on 220gsm Fabriano Rosapina paper.

Dating from around the 10th or 11th Century this Saxon wheel head cross stands on the edge of the Calder Valley high above Todmorden. It's location lies close to an ancient pathway and later pack horse route over the moors between Lancashire and Yorkshire.

New Prints

A new linocut finished and the start of a new mezzotint.

Ist blend of blue to white

2nd blend of grey to white

3rd blend of yellow to light blue grey

4th  blend of blue through blue green to brown.

5th colour  a single line of green to separate the far beach from the background.

6th colour - a blend of two blues to detail the waves.

And a new mezzotint plate after about 5 hours work. Still a long way to go on this.

Lindisfarne - Linocut

New Linocut just completed. 11 colours in 6 passes. 200mm x 300mm. Not sure of the edition size yet. Once the prints are dry I'll have to go through them as a number have some dodgy registration issues.

Colour 1

 Colour 2

 Colour 3

 Colour 4

 Colour 5

 Colour 6