October 20, 2018

Drawn in the Argos Gallery of Santa Fe:

Newsprint drawing on top of the soft grounds

I epic failed trying to make a soft ground etching from a figure drawing, like I did last December (2017).  I prepared the copper plate with B.I.G. grounds the night before at Remarque/New Grounds Print Workshop in Albuquerque.  Then I drew the figure on the wet plate the next day at Argos in Santa Fe.  However, the palm of my hand rubbed against the newsprint, and that probably injured the plate drawing.  I should have drawn using a bridge, or a mahl stick, to lift my hand off the plate.

Disaster --

the soft ground plate

after 45 minutes of drawing

Note:  The next day I tried to roll the brayer over the plate, so that I could try the soft ground process again.  However, the BIG ground was already too dry to spread out the grounds.   Perhaps if I brayer over my bad plate immediately, I could have tried again.  As it is, I didn't sacrifice the copper plate -- I just have to take the dried old ground off, and reapply a soft ground.

I prepared the plate with black B.I.G. grounds

which I bought at Takach

Soft Ground video 

from the maker of B.I.G. grounds

Newsprint

BIG grounds

copper plate

First I coated the newsprint paper

Then I put the coated side of the newsprint

onto the copper plate,

and rolled the brayer on top, 

transferring the BIG grounds to the copper plate

When I peeled off the newsprint, 

the soft grounds layer was thin enough,

but not smooth --

notice the copper speckles peeking through

I then ran the brayer on top of the freshly coated copper plate,

and managed to cover the whole copper plate

with a smooth thin layer

I taped a piece of newsprint on top

of the coated copper plate,

and drew from the live model

The drawing proceeded nicely

And the drawing did pull off the soft ground,

exposing the copper for etching -- 

however I believe I rubbed my hand all over the plate,

and that picked a lot of the ground,

turning the paper black,

and making the finished plate unusable

WATERCOLOR

So I switched to watercolor, which I bought at the Southwest Print Fiesta in Silver City earlier in the month.  People keep telling me that I have to use color.

I bought the Arroyo watercolor tin

from the table Wildland Press, 

a project of Blossom Merz,

at the Southwest Print Fiesta in Silver City --

he is setting up his shop in Madrid, New Mexico

Arroyo color tin

by Wildland Press,

of Madrid, New Mexico