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A Woman Picking up a Rock, 2011, relief etching with watercolor,
6 x 4 1/4 inches
RELIEF ETCHING: AN EXPERIMENT
| I was reading
Joseph Viscomi's book, Blake and The Idea of the Book,
in which the author tries to reconstruct the obscure printmaking
methods Blake used to produce his Illuminated Books. Relief etching
looked pretty easy - a sort of reverse process like my linocuts - so I decided to give it a try.
Oh, easy for William! |
11/12/11, painting on copper plate |
11/12/11, varnished plate with fine lines drawn
with needle |
11/15/11, 5th proof with watercolor
| This was only a test--
just to see if it would work. Not as easy to draw and paint on
copper with asphaltum as it looked in the book. The varnish wanted
to spread out on the plate, refused to hold a line. Aj Smith told me the varnish wasn't thick
enough, and it turned out he was right. But then I had trouble
ethching the plate because my nitric bath was old and produced
no bubbles, so I tried some old ferric chloride (it had been,
like, 10 years since I had done any etching) and that worked
pretty well--too well, in fact, since I got some foul biting
in the dark areas--but it bit the fine lines pretty well. Until
I get some more acid I don't have a strong enough mordant to
bite the large open areas, like the back of the woman here. I
had to wipe that out with a rag before printing. But I think
I might like this technique. |
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11/14/11, 1st proof, with watercolor |
11/14/11, 2nd proof, with watercolor |
11/15/11, 3rd proof |
11/15/11, 3rd proof with watercolor |
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