Earlier in the week I mentioned that I am wrapping up work on three more print editions for exchanges. (Well, maybe “wrapping up” is a bit optimistic at this point, but I am working fast and furious on all three editions.) I’m happy enough with one of them now that I don’t mind sharing a bit about it.
This photo is of an almost completed plate, and just needs a few adjustments before I can print the edition. It is an engraving done on Resingrave (a plastic resin matrix mounted on a wood substrate, which simulates more expensive endgrain woodblocks). I am greatly enjoying learning how to engrave, using the burins my grandmother gave me a few years back. The graphic, linear nature of this medium, most commonly printed in black and white, appeals to my sense of detail. I can say almost with certainty that this will not be my only engraving.
The exchange’s theme is “Tribute to a Most Influential Printmaker.” I chose to do a portrait of Rockwell Kent, an American painter and printmaker most active in the 1920’s and 1930’s. I have for some time admired the clean, bold lines of his black and white wood engravings. Although his work has not influenced my past prints, I anticipate that his style will spill into my future engravings, as it inspired me to overcome my concerns about engraving for the first time.
If I am happy with my future proofs, I may well print the edition this evening. More photos to come (and I apologize for the poor quality of the image above; the lighting was just not sufficient).