Today was the first day of a course I’m teaching at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, linked to the excellent Käthe Kollwitz exhibition. We spent some time drawing from her work before going back into the studio to develop drypoint plates and woodblocks inspired by her prints. I drew directly onto a paper drypoint plate with a fineline pen, studying a small section of her etching ‘Raped’ from 1908, a few square inches around a foot and some sunflowers. It is incredibly complicated and detailed, the entire etching must have taken her ages to do. I love to study from the great masters, you learn so much. Once I was happy with the drawing on the plate, I started to incise the lines with the low-tech tool I made – a four inch screw and some masking tape. Cheap as well. Tomorrow we print!
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