Journey into Printmaking -- Part 2

This post is about my continuing journey into printmaking and about the more-or-less spontaneous evolution of an image through various media.

Serendipitously, now that I was immersing myself in printmaking, Saint John Art Centre artist-in-residence, Robert Morouney, was about to offer a course in copperplate etching, and ahead of it, a brief course entitled Drawing into Stories.  I signed up for both, thinking the first one would likely lead naturally into the second.  The Saint John Art Centre has a dedicated printmaking studio, available for use by artists that have been trained in using the press, and this seemed like a great opportunity to cross that bridge... not to mention trying copperplate etching.

In the drawing course, Bob focussed on mark-making and on the process of resolving a many-toned image into black and white.  One of the assignments he gave was to take a photograph and draw it in black, white and a middle grey.  I settled on a photograph I'd taken near my Halifax flat when attending NSCAD.

Side-yard Gate (digital photograph)

Although I had intentionally picked an image with strong lights and darks, I found it unexpectedly easy and satisfying to pick out the things that would matter in a three-toned (hurriedly produced) drawing.

Side-yard Gate, pencil sketch

In another instance of serendipity, I found myself under pressure to produce a small painting as a donation to a fund raiser being held by the Saint John Art Centre.  Encouraged by the drawing I'd done, I decided to continue working with the same image.  The painting that follows was done after Bob's drawing course but before the copperplate etching course.  Working on this realistic rendition made me more intensely familiar with details in the image that would eventually come to matter when turning it into a print.

Side-yard Gate (oil on canvas, 5" x7")

By this time, I'd finished the Tree Swallow print, at least for the time being, and wanted to do another linocut.  I started with the sketch I'd done for Bob's course and the challenge of going from three tones to two.  I decided to experiment with the idea of using cross-hatching for the mid-tones and produced the first print.

Side-yard Gate, first draft

Here was another instance of a first draft that didn't begin to match the image in my mind.  Back to the drawing board again, to further tackle how to turn the image into black and white... and in this case again, the first draft had helped to isolate what mattered to the image and point to ways to make them stronger in the next version.  Materials came to matter in this print, but I'll save that story for another instalment in this series of blog posts.

Still using a baren to print, I produced another draft.  The hatching was gone, but the diagonal siding that is visible in the photo inspired a different solution for how to delineate space and light around the door.

Side-yard Gate, printed with a baren

I was considerably more satisfied with this version and was thinking of it as finished when, as the weeks progressed, I finally got to print it on the etching press at Saint John Art Centre after Bob's course was over.  Well!!!  What a surprise to see the press bring out carving detail that I didn't get with the baren, which enhanced the image considerably and opened up a whole new avenue of exploration: how to intentionally use the carving detail to effect in an image.

Side-yard Gate, final draft, printed on etching press