Summer Studio Sessions

Just because school stops doesn't mean the studio closes!  I've been doing my best to keep working hard even though I've been doing lots of R&R and travelling around Italy. Since the school studio has closed for the summer I'm somewhat limited to the kinds of work I can be doing at home,... nothing toxic, and pretty much no printing.  I have however been going steady on prepping copper plates for future mezzotints. Its been a lot of hard work that has not only been physically tiring and time consuming, but has also started to take a bit of a toll on my right arm.  I've ordered a Rollerblade wrist-gaurd to combat the strain on my wrist as well as a tennis elbow brace to help stabilize my elbow as I rock.  All of this is more preventative than anything and will hopefully allow me to make these kind of prints for a long time to come.

I'm lucky right now that even though the school studio is closed, a good friend of mine has access to another print studio for the summer and has been kind enough to give me free access to proof and do small amounts of work after hours.

Most notably I managed to complete the rocking on my large 30cmx30cm plate for the Hortise as well as the initial tracing. These steps are always the most dull steps the process so now its all just fun and games as I work to make the copper come alive with an image.

On the side I've been making a few small plates for fun... nothing worth of writing about, but surely they will get filled with imagery soon!

First Proof

After about 60 hours of work burnishing work (on top of another 10 to prep the plate) I have finally arrived at my first proof of my current mezzotint.  Because this image is quite detailed it takes quite a while to reach this point.  It's far from done, but all of the basic elements are well starting to take form and from this point on this start moving much quicker between proofing. 

I also nailed down appropriate ink for this plate which was based on my last mezzotint.  I used 70% Charbonel #55981 black and 30% Transparent base.  I also used the better of the 3 presses we have access to in our studio... something that i think will work to my advantage as I go forward with this print.

From here i will start to soften the overall shading and start to bring in more refined texture. I'll also have to create the floor element which has yet to be developed.  With about 30 more hours this print should be good to go to edition!!!