- A Day of Printing...

As usual, awoken by the wind ruffling against my bedroom windows; one of the delights of Aberystwyth Seafront. 

After a group seminar viewing some of the etching prints in the School Of Arts collection, which included works from Whistler and Edgar Holloway, I was inspired by the detail in the marks in their imagery, and composition especially in the works of Whistler. Each piece made me think, "how did he do that?"  I was very excited on continuing with my own work.

Aluminum Plate Left, Sketchbook Drawing right.
After drawing both the Sketch and plate out on my train journey last week, I finally got round to putting my drawn out  plate in copper sulphate and etching it at three grades to create the depths of line similar to my drawing.  One of my favourite parts of printmaking is not knowing exactly how your prints will turn out, and appreciating that each unexpected mark can add to the print, but if it really doesn't look how you wanted it to, you can still change it. Something that is very difficult to do with drawings, especially pen drawings. After a few prints, I felt that they were lacking tone, and there was a lot of empty space left on the plate so I intend to add more to etching, and see what i can learn from this atempt for future etchings.

The beauty of watching the birds fllock together is truly spectacular. On my walk home i was looking for inspiration for future etchings and paintings, something that i always struggle with is developing my subject and it's composition, learning what to leave out is key, as well as knowing how to focus the eyes on certain areas of the image which help bring the work to life. I realised that theres so much going on around us, if it's not people rushing to the train station, cars shooting past, or birds flying from tree to tree, the clouds are constantly moving, the sky is constantly changing colour, the temperature is constantnly changing, there are all sorts of sounds being heard, which made me understand that all of this isn't noticed in a drawing or painting or even a photograph. My task was now working out how to recreate this atmosphere within my work, I took a few quick sketches of some of the streets, and people passing by, taking notes of what i could hear, and what was going on around me (admittidely this proved a task in the wind!). Nonetheless, these sketches will help me develop my ideas, especially when I'm in the painting studio tomorow wondering what to paint...