Being watched ...

Four years ago I did a creative art study and one of the classes was etching. It was a lot of fun to do and despite being with 16 students and only one press we all went home with one finished artwork. I got ink all over my hands that didn't come off for over a week. I hate having my hands get dirty or sticky or something like that (my boss was none too pleased with it either).But the end result was really nice and I really wanted to do more. But we only had the one lesson and that was that.

For the past few months this art class was going through my mind over and over again and I had so many ideas for etchings that I thought I would search the internet for a second hand press (or with my budget a third hand or even older then that) and saw an ad for a workshop for dry etching in my city. I called straight away for information and got the details on how much, where, how long etc. It was only a 40 minute bike ride from where I live, the price was really acceptable and it would be for 4 hours. Ok, sign me on I said. 3 weeks later I went over, had a really enjoyable afternoon. I took some drawings with me and one of them I etched on a small zinc plate, inked them (and did not get my hands too messy) and in the end went home with one good print.

I enjoyed that very much so I made a new appointment for a new workshop a month later. Before that time I went to a art supply shop and bought my own zinc plates, and some special thick plastic. A special etch pen I already had for mthe art class way back when. At home I made a template for a coffin and traced that on paper. I also traced it on the thick plastic and cut them out. On paper I sketched some scenes and traced them on the plastic.

On the second workshop I made prints from my etchings and took them home. Once dry I colored them in with watercolor. From the first one I had 2 good prints. I named them:

Being Watched I

and the dark blue one is

Being Watched II

And here is a pic that shows the bare etch on the left and nr II just being colored in with watercolor.

And here is another in between pics.

I have 12 more prints to color in so I'd better get busy. The next printing will be November 19th and I want to have these finished and have a large zinc plate etched before then.