Taken from my Tulips drawing, this solar plate etching involved all kinds of trickery with a photocopier, photovoltaic plate, light box, vacuuming and too many buttons to remember which one was ‘on’. The drawing was (almost) the easy part!
There were several disappointing trials before getting to this stage! And each step along the way takes time, effort, patience and lots of notes…
This plate developed more faintly than I’d anticipated (whilst my previous effort was too dark)! However, printed, it offered the opportunity for some mono printing (the coloured ink rolled on after applying the black into the lines). And then, some redesigning of the tulips, once dry. I used a lot of extender in the second print, giving a much more subtle effect.
Here is the acetate of used to create the photovoltaic plate (contrast enhanced):
I have to thank fellow printmaker Sharon Halliday for helping me out by performing her computer magic to resize, greyscale and other techy stuff to create the acetate in the first place!
I’m looking forward to creating some more of these variable prints soon. Another edition of just 20.
