Night on a bare mountain
Here’s a quick up date on an etching plate that’s had very slow progress.
Apologies for the terrible scan. The print got folded up on the journey home.
Bu it really is a very dark image. And only a bit darker than i had an anticipated. I used white ground to build up the composition over an aquatint before etching. White Ground is a mixture of chalk, oil and soap; only i think my recipe must be a bit wrong because it makes these tiny white bubbles instead of more solid areas of white. only the light reflected on the lake in the centre of the image has any solidity.
It’s kind of getting there composition wise. I’ve got to sit down with the plate and burnish some areas paler for highlights. And, maybe borrow a roulette for the shadows. And do something with the sky, because there is much more of it than in the original drawing.
Update: 20 Dec
Here’s some rather enthusiastic burnishing. And possibly over wiping. I did try the roulette for the ‘invisible’ bat over the tree but at didn’t work out. The plate now has a hard ground on and part of my holiday chores will be working back into the over done areas. Here come the dots . . . …….. . . . . . .. . . . . so many tiny dots.
it’s so weird how it changes it’s appearance as it changes scale. the plate is almost A4, the original sketch is A6
The bat in the centre of the image definitely needs to be knocked back a long with the lumpy grass on the right, and the mountainside in the centre. I’m sure i could tinker with this for ever.
And put a proper bevel on the poor thing.
MER
a map of hyper-space 