December 3, 2018

Drawn at Mike Meyer's studio in Cedar Crest, New Mexico:

This was another attempt at making a soft ground etching, directly from the model during a 3 hour drawing session.

At the end of 3 hours, the reverse side of the newsprint paper (which faced the copper plate with wet BIG grounds) was much more muddy than the pencil drawing on the other side.

Muddy reverse side

of the newsprint paper

Perhaps the reverse side looks muddy is because I brayered the BIG ground directly on the copper plate directly (as he does in the BIG video).  Perhaps this puts too much wet ground on the plate.  I brayered this plate with BIG grounds last Friday, and I thought it would dry a bit in the 3 day interim.  However, it is December and cold, which probably does not encourage drying.  The plate was still very wet before drawing, with the BIG grounds coming off when I touched the plate.

The most successful BIG soft ground experiment so far have been when I first brayered the BIG grounds onto a piece of newspaper, and then pressed the wet newspaper onto the copper plate. Perhaps this coats the copper plate with a thinner layer of BIG ground.

Will this plate etch well?

UPDATE (Dec 14):

This plate had about 2 weeks to "dry" (even in the cold weather).  However, it did not seem to etch at all after an hour in ferric chloride at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque. So I did not bother to proof it.

Plate after an hour etch

in ferric chloride

at Remarque Print Workshop

Note, I left this plate alone for 3 days after I coated it with BIG grounds.  That was apparently not long enough for it to "dry" a little bit (though the weather was cold).

December 1, 2018

Drawn in the Argos Gallery of Santa Fe:

I am making another attempt do do a BIG soft ground etching, while drawing from a live model.

At the end of the 3 hour modeling session, I peeled the newsprint paper off the wet copper plate, and
the reverse image was dirty and blurry. Perhaps the BIG grounds were too wet, as I had brayered them on the previous day, directly onto the plate. I did this for the previous soft ground experiment, and also got a muddy looking newsprint ghost image on the back of the paper.

Note that the BIG ground was so sticky that when I laid the newsprint on it to draw, it stuck, and would not pull off easily.

Muddy reverse drawing image

on the back of the newsprint paper

Ugly plate, 

but perhaps it will etch well

For earlier BIG soft ground experiments, I brayed the wet BIG grounds onto a newsprint paper first, and then transferred the BIG grounds to the copper plate, by placing that newsprint paper onto the copper plate, wet side down, and brayering again.  Maybe this makes for a thinner coat of BIG grounds -- which might be less wet, and work better.

M Tobias Hall drew with us.



UPDATE (Dec 14):

I etched the plate in ferric chloride for an hour at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque, but the results do not look promising.  After 20 and 30 minutes there didn't seem visually to be much of an etch.  Since the etch did not look promising, I did not bother to proof it.

The plate was "dry" after 2 weeks (even though we have cold weather), not sticky to the touch.  The BIG ground was strong enough not to flake off.

Plate after 1 hour etch

at Remarque

Also, on a side note, Kimberly's soft ground etch did not work either.   She used the soft ground method in the New Grounds manual, but the grounds were flaking off.  Since she started this project about the same time that I did, the ink/grounds had plenty of time to dry.

November 29, 2018

Drawn at 3rd Street Arts in Albuquerque:  

The drawing on newsprint after 3 hours

I tried to make another soft grounds print, but failed again.  I believe that the soft BIG grounds was too wet (having brayered it on a couple of hours before the drawing session).  Moreover, we tried to etch the plate in while the BIG ground was still wet, and the ferric chloride took the wet BIG grounds off.

Newsprint paper on top of a copper plate

coated with wet BIG grounds,

after the first 20 minute session with the model

Note the "bridge" -- made of a wooden ruler and poster putty at both ends -- this is positioned so that my hand does not touch the newsprint, which would pull the BIG grounds off the copper plate, 

and ruin my drawing on the copper plate.

The "bridge"

under the drawing

After 3 hours, when I pulled the newsprint paper off the copper plate, the reverse side of the newsprint looked too dark.  I believe that the soft BIG grounds was too wet, and therefore too easily transferred to the newsprint.  I probably should let the wet BIG grounds dry for a day, in a dark place.

The drawing barely seen

on the reverse side of the newsprint paper,

which was touching the BIG grounds

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the copper plate before etching.  However, coated plate looked even worse than the newsprint paper above.

I decided to etch the plate the next day (Nov 30th), while the BIG ground was still wet.  After 30 minutes in ferric chloride, most of the BIG ground came off.  Good thing we etched the plate in a small flat tray, instead of submersing it in the larger ferric chloride vertical tanks at Remarque Print Workshop.

The wet soft BIG ground

came off in the ferric chloride bath

after 30 minutes

Washed plate after 30 minutes

in ferric chloride

The BIG ground that remained on the copper plate

after etching and washing

was still wet, and smeared easily

The plate turned yellow

after spraying a solution of soda ash on it

The cleaned plate

seemed to have etched,

but did not look like the drawing I did the night before

MORALE of the story:  Harden the soft BIG grounds before etching in ferric chloride.

I could have cooked and hardened the wet BIG grounds with a hot plate, like I did with this plate I drew on earlier, but etched a hour after this plate.