Black dogs are a bit of a thing for me, metaphorically and literally. It took me a while, but I finished my inaugural mezzotint. Yes you are quite right, it is tiny. 6 x 5 cms of tiny to be exact. It took a long time of careful burnishing, scraping, stippling and deep concentration while I got my head round working from light to dark, burnishing the whites the most and working backwards to create tone.
Then inking up is a bit of a skill in itself. It’s all tarlatan dolly, dirty wipe, tissue wipe, retroussage. Fancy!
Next lesson is going to be interesting because I have talked my teacher into trying a non-toxic method of hardground etching. I showed him my shiny new copy of Non-Toxic Printmaking. After his initial horror he buried his nose in the book for ages, scuttled off and came back with the necessary bits we need.
