If only they grew in clusters like this...

I’m really enthralled by these landscapes. This will be a drypoint… I think… It would also be a lovely engraving. I’ve been meaning to try my new engraving tools.   Stay tuned…

Started a new plate. I am enjoying how strange these landscapes are. They are familiar but creepy. This has the denseness of pattern you’d see in a forest but it’s also flat and stylized, like patterned fabric or paper, or maybe glass, constructed into a landscape. They remind me of an enchanted forest that would be in a faerie tale. Though they are not lyrical, or sweet. There’s something hard about them. A murder could happen in this place or there could be a house with chicken legs where baba yaga lives just over the ridge (or maybe a small unseelie creature that lives solely to find and hoard precious and lost things. More on that later…)

Study for Second large plate. 4x6 ft.

This is the source image I took during one of my morning walks with my iPhone. I really liked how juicy looking the red berries were.

Fall ground cover, reference photo for glass forest.

It took me days to line this image. This is the final pattern that I used as the base. It is used for the entire image even the trees. I’m not quite sure why using a single source image is important to me, but I think it is what is creating the eerie fantasy forest feeling. The pattern is like a building block that can be twisted and turned into the shape I need. Here, the pattern is the mark. A syntax for the language of the image. During talks with friends about the work people often bring up camouflage. I like this. It can be a place where I can conceal things with-in the pattern. I think I’m going to explore this more. Another thing people often mention is Magic Eye puzzles, Remember those? Can you see the leaping dolphin?!!

Finished study of reference.

This plate is a beast to carve. I will be knarled and arthritic before long. Thinking about making a prosthetic that is a laser cutter or CNC…
There is something to this idea though. Why not a glove with a battery powered dremel attachment? Its more than possible.

Study for 4x8ft engraving

Been drawing on the computer lately. Really like it. This was done in Photoshop as a study for a super large Engraving/etching that I am planning. The shelf mushroom, Hen of the woods, will be in drypoint on the same plate as the engraving. Ill post more about the process later, when I start the plate.

CARVING

Started carving this week. This is about 35 hours worth of carving. I keep a bowl of ice water nearby to soak my poor swollen hands while I carve. Hopefully they toughen up. I plan to do many of these.

I coated the plate with a mixture of alcohol and blue acrylic paint to act as a sort of blueing. This enables me to see my mark, which disappears without a coating of some form. Sharpie also works, but not on this scale.

Done!
It’s 2:03 am. My wrists, arms and shoulders ache. Print tomorrow.

Proof time. I havn’t been this excited in a while. let’s see how well the carving translated the image. I might loose something…I might gain something.

Wiping the plate: The average 18×24 inch plate takes about 45 minutes to wipe. This might take a long time. Wiping the plate is a process of coating it in a frosting of thick ink then buffing it off untill only the line retains the ink. I chose to use graphite ink as it usually wipes quickly. It also prints a soft pencil like line.

WipingThe fully Inked Plate. It took about an hour.

In all, the plate wiped with the graphite ink really quickly, I hope I Like it enough to want to stick with it. It went so fast!

Finally the first proof.

Finished proof of the drypoint

Unfortunately I’m finding it difficult to get a good pic with my phone. Ill have to get the good camera out later. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I think the plate needs more work. Ill try hand coloring the mushrooms…maybe Chine colle.