So far, my idea has evolved a little from my first post. Instead of doing traditional still lives of places that are important to me, I’ve decided to take advantage of the mark-making and textures in etching to do close up, textural work of my favorite places. I feel that this will allow for a little more creative interpretation than simply drawing just what I see, and add an abstract element to my images.
I’ve used a majority of the time we’ve had so far to gather materials and research various processes of etching, and trying to find alternative ways to do it at home. It’s been very interesting to see how people have overcome their lack of proper materials to create their art the way they want to create it.
Once I got everything together with a plan of action, it went pretty smoothly. I degreased my plate with soy sauce and baking soda, applied a hard ground with a foil-covered skillet hot plate, and started sketching while the ground cured.
I took reference photos with my phone from various angles of one of the places I had decided to use for this first image, my bed. I tried to get several different images to try to find one that I found to be aesthetically pleasing and compositional. I decided on one view and started sketching on the plate using a white oil pastel, using the photo below as a reference.
Once I had my image scratched out of the hard ground, I dropped it in a ferric chloride bath for 20 minutes to etch my lines. I engineered a press out of 2 pieces of hardboard with my damp paper, inked plate and a piece of felt sandwiched between and taped together, and I ran it over with my car a couple times to get the required pressure.
I’m fairly happy with how this first layer turned out and I’m excited to try an aquatint technique next to get some darker values and more texture in my piece.
Brittney Walton 