Had some good news today – 3 of my etchings have been accepted into the New Visions exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery opening on Sat Jan 7th 2012 through to the end of the month. This is the first time original DMCropley artwork has gone on sale to the public – hoping for the best! :D
Now that Life Class is over until January next year its time to dig back through the archives and post up classic images from years past. Enjoy…
Tag Archives: intaglio
Life Drawing 03-11-11
Back again after the half term for another life drawing extravaganza!
Print Collection 16-09-11
Picked up a couple of test prints today. Not so sure about the tartan plate. Will have a think about another way of approaching the tone. The other plate is the first etching I made live at life class. I wasn’t going to print from it, but it may be just the image I’m looking for to fill a personal commission.
Click thumbs for full size images, Have a great weekend!
Print Collection 14-09-11
Four prints to collect today. Once again testing the two current types of ink I have at the moment. Charbonnel gives a much more subtle flavour, and the Caligo a less refined but more punchy, cartoony look. Testing will continue! Life drawing starts again tomorrow so a whole new raft of plate making will follow, which reminds me – I must prepare the 20 plates I bought :/
For full size images, click thumbs below
Print Collection 02-09-11
I’ve been working a lot recently on a series of inkings, but I’ve still been trying to put in a day a week down at the print shop. I’ve been experimenting with different inks under the advisement of a few experienced printers that are more than willing to share their knowledge. Turns out though that the technique I’d developed using a certain type of water based ink doesn’t translate across to the more traditional ‘industry standard’ Charbonelle oil based ink. Its fun to have a play though, certainly takes the pressure off… only one useable image out of nine isn’t so good in a production sense though!
I’ve also tried a different smaller size of paper, inspired by the 6×8 charity art competition I’m entering.
Print Collection 25-08-11
It feels like a long while since I’ve been down to the print studio. Picked up these prints today that were pulled on Tues. I’d just got some new fancy Charbonnelle printing ink and had a bit of a play rather than just trying to pull the perfect print each time. Its much more fun this way. Oddly doesn’t feel like you’re producing anything good at the time, but they seem to be growers. Enjoying playing with texture and tone, I’m going to forget about editioning and just get on with it…
Click thumbs for larger images
Print Collection 20-07-11
Its been a little while since I posted here, but now we’re back to business as usual. New house, new studio, new start. I picked up the etchings here from the last session down at Spike Print a couple of weeks ago.
Still need to sort out a better way of photographing or scanning these prints, but that will come. Click thumbs below for full size view…
Bad Meaning Good. Print Collection 21-07-11
More practice = more better. Getting my print mojo working, had a much better session today. I’m looking to get an edition of around 6 good prints per plate. Very low numbers, but that’s the deal. The prints I picked up today are getting better, still refining the technique though. So much to learn. (Apologies for the poorly lit photos – moving house and office at the moment so only able to snap with a little point and shoot digi-cam. Normal service will be resumed soon)
Todays lesson. Don’t overwet your paper – especially when using water soluble ink. I was getting these crazy (unwanted) textures and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it. But thanks to some sage advice I believe over-wetting was the problem. This didn’t happen in todays’ session so it looks like that’s the cause. You can see the problem below:
Not cool – especially when it takes a good 30mins to prepare the plate for it to fail at the last stage… and then do it again on the next print because you can’t work out what’s wrong :/ Click thumbs below for a closer look.
Trials and Tribulations – Print Collection 18-07-11
No-one ever said it was gonna be easy! 6 hours work, 9 prints made and barely 3 of saleable quality. I’ll have to listen to my own advice today. To succeed you must embrace failure. It may be frustrating that I’ve not managed to produce what I wanted, but the lessons learnt are invaluable moving forward.
Click thumbs below to see the good the bad and the ugly in full size…
Print Collection 13-07-11
Just picked up my 1st edition. I’m posting up all 8 of the prints I collected today so you can see the variation print-to-print. I’m bloody knackered. Spent all day today at the print studio editioning the next plate. I’d forgotten how tiring it is to be stood up all day. Didn’t go so well print-wise which is a bit annoying. It takes ages to work up the plate for each print and so much can wrong at any stage. I’m sure its just practise, but its so gutting seeing the prints turn out bad after spending so long inking and working the plate. Heh ho, its all part of the game…
Its difficult to see the difference because of the slightly shonky photography, but if you look at the areas such as the legs at the bottom of the plate or the black around the face you can see the variation. Click the thumbs below for larger images
Dave Cropley 