The Assignment: to read the assigned poem and make a print of whatever it inspires you to make.
The Process: This print still involves etching like the first print I made, however instead of drawing on the plate and having full control over all the details we were required to "paint" it all. Basically this process is called aquatint.
Step One: Spray a fine mist of spray paint on to your plate. The dots will be etched into the plate giving the final print a smudgy misty effect.
Step Two: Determine how many shades of grey you want your final print to have.
Step Three: Map out how much time you need to etch each "layer" in order to accomplish the desired shades of grey/black
Step Four: cover your whites, etch, cover your light greys, etch, cover your medium greys, etch, cover your dark greys, etch and anything uncovered will be your black. The process is a very "paint-by-numbers" if you will....
I know the whole thing sounds confusing, because, well it is. But basically the longer the copper plate is exposed to the acid the deeper the marks will etch, the more ink they will hold and the darker that area will be. So, you create your print in layers of shades covering up different parts with hard ground to protect it along the way. My print was very complicated because my main figure was the darkest part of my plate. Thus, I had to draw or paint (yes we painted on the hard ground with a fine-tipped brush or a special trick: using sharpie, more on this soon.) everything but the actual figure. For my specific print this means that I had to paint everything but the tree. Unfortunately, my tree had much more detail than you can see. I used sharpie which is suppose to work, to create tiny detailed branches and things but they didn't end up etching. I think because they were so small. Anyway-- here it is!!!
The Print:
Love,Katie
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