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The Carved Elephant – A Drypoint Etching

I have been doing some printmaking at The Bagpuss Window, the temporary artspace in Swansea’s High Street, making a little edition of miniature drypoints (similar to etchings). I set up a printing area around the little etching press, with an inking table, a blotting table and a drying table. I measured and ripped 8 pieces of Bockingford 250gsm paper and put them into a bucket of water to soak. I like to leave them for at least an hour.

I started out with a small sketchbook drawing I made last year during my residency at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio in Pakistan, and redrew it with a soft drawing pen onto a piece of paper drypoint plate (from Intaglio Printmakers). Then I scratched into the drawing with a lot of cross hatching and mark-making, using a drypoint tool, although a 4 inch screw will do.

The soaking / blotting table (clean area)

I used a little rubber squeegee strip to apply drypoint etching ink – it’s important to get the right ink, ordinary etching ink doesn’t work so well. I scraped across the surface to remove surplus ink with an old plastic card and removed a little more with some tissue, wiping the edges with a clean rag. It’s vital not to overwipe, it’s surprising how much ink you can leave on the plate – it doesn’t show up on the paper.

Then I gently blotted a piece of the paper between two sheets of kitchen roll with a small roller – just to remove surface water, not to dry out the paper – and placed it over the etching plate on the press bed, put some clean tissue on top, put the blankets over it and wound it through the press. Then I dried it between sheets of tissue under a heavy board to stop it from wrinkling. You can get 6-8 prints from a paper drypoint plate if you’re fairly gentle.

Walking The Labyrinth

Here’s 3 minutes of my feet walking the lovely labyrinth made from chipped bark by archaeologist Dewi Bowen and musician David Pitt in The Bagpuss Window this week. The feet are not interesting at all, except it looks like I have my shoes on the wrong feet, but the accompanying gong music from David is wonderful. Go with the flow…….

Dewi has written an excellent book about Siluria, now South-East Wales, and its ancient standing stones, burial chambers, cairns and stone circles. Well worth a read and dead cheap.

One From The Archives 15: The Warrior Gazes

Here is an illustration of how the natural differences in original print methods can work. These two pieces are taken from the same original drawing but because of the nature of the processes, one is reversed.

The three colour separation monotype above is done by removing ink from a transparent sheet, then applying that sheet to a piece of paper. This is called the reduction method and gives you a reverse image compared to what you see when you are drawing.

You can compensate for this easily these days but sometimes I prefer to use the natural qualities of the traditional printmaking methods. A detailed description of the process can be seen in my techie section. For this print I used oil-based litho/relief pigment onto BFK Rives cotton-rag paper

The direct line monotype, below is done by working on the back of an inked-up sheet, which is placed on top of another piece of paper. This means it will produce a direct copy what you are drawing.

For this I used archival quality oil-based litho ink onto Zerkall paper

The monotypes, ‘The Warrior Gazes’ and ‘The Warrior Pensive’ are available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the links here and here to go directly to them or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.

One From The Archives 14: Jaunty

I never know who I will be drawing when I turn up for my weekly life drawing session. The models can be in their seventies or twenties, male or female. Because of this they each present different challenges and opportunities. Older models bring a lot of experience which is often visible on their skin or in their style of posing.

Younger models can bring a jaunty confidence, just because they are still full of the strength and exuberance of youth. This is exactly what I think this pose demonstrates. I have tried to capture the physical strength with the use of bold lines and a lightness of colouring which echoes the easy going optimism that we often have when we are young.

For this drawing I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and watercolour washes onto beautiful Somerset paper.

This drawing, which I have called ‘Jaunty’ is available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the link here to go directly to it or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.

The Elephant In Lahore

I started working on a new tiny drypoint. During my residency in Pakistan last year, I did a fair bit of sketchbook drawings and I spotted this carved elephant in a restaurant in Lahore. I scribbled it and I’ve now redrawn it, with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, onto a small piece of drypoint card (available from Intaglio Printmakers).

I used a drypoint tool to incise the lines, making sure that the tool cut through the plastic coating. It’s now ready for printing. That’ll come tomorrow.

One From The Archives 13: The Gathering

Sleep. Dream. Nightmare. This is an etching of one of the female models I work with and is developed from a nude study drawn with Renaissance materials, inspired by artwork I did for a television series about da Vinci. One of my initial drawings can be seen below.

For the etching, I worked on the drawing, using nib pen, Indian ink, ink wash and black oilbar onto transparent film. You can see this and other prepared drawings in my previous blog here. From these, I was able to make photopolymer plates which I used to produce etchings. You can see a detailed description of how I produced the etchings here.

Each etching is hand-printed by me using oil pigment onto BFK Rives cotton rag paper

I draw every day and don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t. Describing very specific aspects of the world and more to the point, the people in it, helps me to stamp my own vision on my surroundings.

Each drawing is an exploration of that vision, which means I can tackle the same subject in many different ways. Using different media means I can go even deeper into a subject and tease out threads of meaning I perhaps wasn’t initially aware of.

This drawing is in Indian ink using a traditional dip pen is on handmade paper, prepared with black and sepia ink washes.

The etching, ‘The Gathering’ and the drawing, Rinascere #13 are available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the links here and here to go directly to them or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.

Walk, Draw, Gong.

walkdraw 1 — The labyrinth with my ongoing drawing on the wall

Today is the Autumn Equinox and The Bagpuss Window featured a labyrinth made from bark and gong music from David Pitt. Visitors were invited to walk the labyrinth while David played gong. I had a go. It’s very meditative. It helped me loosen up as I did some more work on my big wall drawing.

walkdraw 2 — Walking the labyrinth with David Pitt on gongs

I’m loving what’s happening at The Bagpuss Window. When I picked up the keys to the old shop at the beginning of the month, I had no idea so many lovely artists would get involved. It’s been a brilliant experience.

One From The Archives 12: Eve Imagines Big Apple Crumble

This is one of a short series of female nudes I did, based loosely on the concept of Eve and apples. It is a full-colour monotype, which is a unique artwork that uses a process beloved by the Impressionists, especially Degas and Monet. A full explanation of the technique can be found here.

As with all of my nudes it is based on a life drawing which can then be used to produce work in many different media. The full colour monotype allows me to explore the surface texture of the paper, the figure and background with a massive range of hues to produce a piece of work which is seductive in its richness.

For all the print geeks out there I used oil-based litho/relief pigment onto BFK Rives cotton-rag paper

The direct line monotype is a quicker, more intuitive process that lets me sketch in the basic figure and let the imagination of the observer fill in the details. Like the full colour monotype, this technique also produces only one work. I like to think that here is a woman, lost in reverie, as she relaxes, comfortable in her own space.

An earlier blog of mine details the process and pitfalls and can be seen here. For this I used archival quality oil-based litho ink onto Zerkall paper

The monotypes; Eve Imagines Big Apple Crumble and The Dreamer are available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the links here and here to go directly to them or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.

Constrained, A Victorian Tapestri

I’ve finally finished the piece I’ve been working on for the exhibition ‘A Victorian Tapestri’ at the end of this week. It’s constructed of the 12 pieces that make up a Victorian corset, cut from a heavyweight Somerset paper. I coated each with cyanotype chemicals and printed them with some of my sketchbook drawings. I’ve called it ‘Constrained’ because it reflects the physical and social constraints endured by Victorian women. The cyanotype process was invented in Victorian times by Sir John Herschel, one of the earliest of photographic processes. I’ve tied the pieces together with mauve ribbon. The aniline dye Mauve was invented by the Victorian chemist William Perkin in 1856.

I decided on a corset when I saw the brief for the show, “all kinds of archaeological, historical, metaphorical, and allegorical excavations of Swansea’s Victorian heritage.” I have vivid memories of my Mam taking me to a corsetry shop called Madam Foner’s in Swansea’s High Street to be fitted for brassieres when I was in my early teens. She believed in ‘proper’ underwear and wouldn’t let me have those flimsy, pretty department store bras that my schoolfriends wore. So I had to endure an adolescence of engineered constructions that looked like they’d been built in a shipyard. The Victorian connection? Madam Foner’s was in a beautiful Victorian shop, now housing the rather lovely Galerie Simpson. Click here to see a photo of this gorgeous building.

The exhibition opens this Friday at Tapestri on Alexandra Road, Swansea at 7pm and runs until October the 9th.

One From The Archives 11: Rinascere #6 and The Flower

Variations on the themes of tattoos and flowers. I love working with this model. Older women are often invisible in our society. She is an elder and voluptuous and larger-than-life and covered with tattoos. Some of them are carnivorous plants engulfing insects across her body. She is confident in her own skin and first featured in my blog in August 2012 and again in April 2013, when I produced an etching from the drawing.

The first drawing is in Indian ink using a traditional dip pen is on handmade paper, prepared with black and sepia ink washes. For that drawing I focussed in on an orchid tattoo, lifting it off her body to place it on the drapery underneath her and the wall behind her.

In this second drawing I wanted to feature both her and the pitcher plant tattoo on her arm. I like to recycle materials, especially papers and mounting boards and I prepared this piece with an ink wash, sponged randomly across it before I began to draw. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, ink wash, black and white conté crayon onto mounting (matte) board.

I was able to use the wash to further develop the theme of the flower in the background. Here it is more integral to the background and seems to emerge, organically; as if from the shadows. Her face, deep in thought, is part of the same broad area of wash which make the pitcher plant look like the product of a dream, reminiscent of the Goya etching ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’.

If you want to find out more technical details about techniques I use please clickhere to go through to the technical section on my website. The drawings, Rinascere #6 and The Flower are available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the links here and here to go directly to them or click on the link below to see other works for sale.

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