More mezzotint masqueraders

…sorry for the alliteration, but the title describes just what I’ve been up to: continuing the making of some very small mezzotint prints. All the mezzotint plates and prints I have so far shown you measure 5×6 cm, or 2 x 2 1/4 inches. Small, and therefore fairly quick to make, though the whole process is still undoubtedly hard work on the hands! And so I am getting used to this technique before I embark on something more ambitious… and gather together some pennies to afford a large ‘pre-rocked’ copper plate – which costs many times more than the plain…

A First Attempt at Mezzotint: part 3

continued from previous post: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/a-first-attempt-at-mezzotint-part-2/ …and finally! After more burnishing the plate of Medusa makes an image like this: (click on the image and you can see a lot more detail) …at least, it does when I get it right. As I mentioned before not only the making of the plate can be tricky, the inking-up is a disaster-prone process too. Too much ink wiped off and this happens: …which is really annoying. Especially as it takes a while to do each time, and the plate is wearing out a little bit each time, too. I may be finding there…

A first attempt at Mezzotint part 2

(continued from: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/a-first-attempt-at-mezzotint/ ) …so, yesterday was the moment of truth, or at least, one moment of truth. The image on the little copper plate on which I’ve been working may look very nice, but the important thing is what will it look like as a print? As I explained, the image is created by starting with a roughened surface and burnishing areas of it smooth, or partially smooth, with steel tools. What will be the lighter areas (in the final print) are shiny areas on the copper plate against the matt areas of the background. Now it’s time to…

A first attempt at mezzotint…

A brand new blog and a brand new process all at once! So, I have my website (http://www.nancyfarmer.net) for the finished stuff, and Facebook for flippant one-liners, but where to put something more substantial? Ah ha, a blog, I thought… Well, I shall give it a try, we will see if it lasts. Coincidentally, the picture above is a brand new technique for me. I have been making etching prints for some time (http://www.nancyfarmer.net/gal_etchings.html), and have begun to borrow techniques from mezzotint, so I thought I’d try it properly. So, what is a Mezzotint? It’s a form of engraving where…