The ups and downs

After some troubles with my Hortoise plate,... particularly in the print stage I managed to cut my losses and understand where I went right and where I went wrong with the making of the print.  While everything looked good on the copper itself, when the time came to print, things just didn't go well and unfortunately the results were nowhere near what I had envisioned them to be.  That said, a learning experience all the same.

Following this however I didn't loose perspective of things... I made another stab at a large and ambitious mezzotint  project and what I had grasped from the first time around I was able to apply to this latest print.  Below I've posted a couple shots of the plate,... inked and non-inked.  The print itself is drying so i couldn't put anything up online yet, but I'm quite happy with the results.

Time out for play

So often do I find myself getting distracted when i'm working on a large and intense project.  Eyes start burning, and the mental energy to continue working at such intensity is on the verge of doing me in!  Well, not literally.

Anyways, I've found that the absolute best way for me to keep focused and get shit done is really just to do more stuff... but different.  Keeping a lot of different projects on my plate really helps me to dig deep on the big ones and get them done without breaking down and throwing in the towel.

I think there is nothing better than picking up a few scraps from around the studio (wherever that may be) and just making something from it. This week i saw a few pieces of rogue metal lying around at school and couldn't resist taking them on as 2-3 hour projects... enough time for me to prepare the plates, conjure up some random shit to put on them, throw 'em in acid and see what comes out on the paper.  Albeit, these are certainly not great works of art, but I think they are fun to put up on here in keeping with the daily ins and outs of working on art.