Something Different

The mezzotint that I have been working on for the last month (see previous posts) is now at the critical stage where I need to think carefully about which areas I work on more and which I leave alone. I don't want to overwork it, so I've put it aside for a while and spent a couple of days cutting this small engraving.

As I don't have a book binding press to print with, I made a false bed from a piece of MDF the same thickness as the wood block so that I can run it through my etching press.

Strictly speaking it's not a wood engraving as it has been worked on a plastic substitute called Resingrave which I bought from TN Lawrence printmaking supplies.

Falco peregrinus

Engraving on Resingrave

126mm x 102mm

Edition of 50

£50.00 unframed. 

Available here

2nd State Proof

After working the plate for a couple of weeks after taking the first proof I'm now ready to take a second. So I was up early this morning and got the inks out. Having only limited space in my studio I'm not able to have dedicated clean and inky areas so I have to be more careful with keeping things apart. My usual work bench serves also as my inking and wiping table. My hot plate sits on a portable table and my waterbath sits beside my press table.

Inked Plate ready for wiping

The wiped plate on the bed of the press

 State II - Impression I

Much more progress now from the first proof I took (see the previous post). As I suggested I wasn't happy with the drawing of the ferns on the right hand side so I re-rocked this part of the plate and redrew them. They still need some more work to highlight the areas catching the dappled sunlight but I am now more pleased with the way that they are looking. The mid-tones on the bridge and area above the waterfalls I am ok with. The main areas for further work are now just on the water. The white water of the falls needs to be burnished much more so that they print as white rather than the dirty grey that they appear. I'm also not sure what to do with the sky - leave it as it is or burnish it paler. Time to put it aside, go out and mow the lawn and then come back to it later with fresh eyes.

1st Proof

After working on the plate fairly solidly for around a week now I've brought it to the stage where I need to proof it. Whilst I prefer to take as few proofs as possible, I find it very hard to judge the state of progress by looking at the plate alone. I am sure that there are some areas which will need much more work but equally I feel that some parts of the plate, particularly in some of the mid tones may be close to being as I want them. So I inked up the plate and took one impression.

The plate, inked up on the press bed. At 20 x 30cm this is the largest size that I can work at on my press.

1st state impression 1.

Not bad, the photograph seems to show much more definition than the print actually has and the sky above the bridge looks paler than on the print. The water below the falls needs more work to vary the tones as it looks a bit flat at the moment. I'm not happy with the bracken on the right hand side and may re-rock this out and start again.

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