I'm taking a really exciting class on different forms of printmaking. The class is made up of three five-week sections. The first section was etching. I've already handed in my final portfolio for that portions so it's over now. I'm currently in digital printmaking and then I'll be going to litho (lithographs). I love etching! I had not realized that the verb 'etching' does not describe the action of drawing with a needle tool onto a copper plate but rather soaking the copper plate in an acid bath so that the acid burns (or 'etches') the lines into the copper. Can you imagine my confused-open-mouth expression during my first two etching classes when my professor kept saying things like "you could get a deeper line by etching for twenty minutes rather than five"? I was sitting there thinking "how can you draw a line for twenty minutes. Now, etching is like common sense to me! Before etching, you apply some sort of ground on the copper plate that protects it and you remove the ground when you draw or mark on it. The acid then 'etches' away the exposed copper. There is one technique, called drypoint, which you draw right onto the copper and don't put it into the acid bath at all. I guess that's what I thought etching was!
We had to find a printmaker/artist and pick out two of his or her work that we would make prints in response to or inspired by. I picked the Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano. My first print is a combination of drypoint and hard ground. Hard ground, a blackish liquid that dries into a hard coating, is one of the two different grounds you can put on a plate. The resulting etched lines are crisp and pen-like.
Here is my first selected Amano piece, a print of the character Vampire Hunter D.
In this piece, I was inspired by Amano's 'epic figure' as I like to call it; I loved the isolated figure with his flowing cape and dynamic pose. In my own print, my figure is a sort of grotesque monstrous creature but rendered in a very beautiful graceful manner. I like the idea of body parts switched or in unusual places; here, I put the arms where the wings would be on the back (if humanoids had wings). The birdman, as I tend to call him, has two faces and, I like to imagine, another or more that we can't see.
Here's my final print.
My next piece, titled "The Bonfire, an Aboriginal legend", illustrates an Aboriginal legend about the creation of the sun that I found in a children's book back at the library. The story goes: Baiame, the creation god, was creating all sorts of creatures but they weren't right, they kept growing bigger and bigger and ended up fighting or eating each other. At this time, there was no sun so Baiame and the other god Punjel lived out in the cold Milky Way. They kept gathering wood for a great fire. Punjel asked Baiame when they were going to light the fire and was peeved to find out that fire hadn't been created yet. Baiame told Punjel not to rush his creations and sure enough an egg fell from the sky. Punjel tried to catch it but it broke all over their fire wood and errupted into a blazing fire. The gods could finally see the beautiful world Baiame had been making (I think it's funny he's been working in the dark) and admired his handy work. Baiame then desides to make delicate and complicated creatures like silver fish, tiny bugs, lizards, birds, and man for the world. At the end of the story, the fire starts to go out and Punjel urges Baiame to relight it but he just says that man will call the light their sun and every time it goes out they will sleep and Baiame will relight the fire for the new day. (this is my favorite part) Punjel askes Baiame what is sleep. Baiame says sleep is like death but not death. Man needs to sleep because life tires him or her out. Punjel says in response "How odd". This story is so 'deep' within its simplicity. I hope my print does it justice!
Here's the other Amano print I selected.
The Amano print I picked for this particular concept had lots of textural details (squiggles and lines) that I thought would be great for the portion of my print where the firelight reveals Baiame's creations. This print is primarily softground, the second type of ground that is waxy and keeps the texture of the tool you use to expose the copper underneath (so a pencil line will etch and print out like a pencil line, a marker line will look like marker, charcoal will look like charcoal, etc.)
Here's a close up of the wonderful, textural 'squiggles' I was inspired by!
And here is my final print! I'm supper pleased with how this one turned out.
