But then, oh then, a magical google search pulled up a book called The Practical guide to etching and other intaglio printmaking. And dear dear google has scanned and uploaded this old edition for me. Although the book is, of course, not posted in its entirety, the whole wiping and printing instruction section of it is! Hooray.

And what a guide it is. Hand wiping covers several pages and is written in minute detail and with illustrations! I learn that temperature plays a big role in ink bloom prominence. If you print a plate that has lots of negative space (the flat ground that does not have etched lines) then you should print it cold. If you heat the plate shortly before printing (as I have been doing) then the plate is much more able to release its ink bloom to the wet paper in the press. I also learn to use chalk as an effective way of drying up the oil of ink on your palm between wipes to remove ink bloom more effectively. There is even a diagram on correct hand wipe movements. Ah, so lovely. I highly recommend this reading.

When I draw I tend to draw mostly “blind”–I rarely look away form my subject and onto the paper. This seemingly self-destructive technique (a learned habit from drawing classes at Yale’s architecture school) has in actuality freed me to record my eye’s movements. The resulting line is endlessly more interesting to me–it is alive, unexpected even to me, and a fully instinctual simplification of the complex. Copying a drawing done in this manner onto a plate with a focus only on high fidelity removes this process. At some point a replication of the free line of blind countour needs to become part of how I make my plates.

Schiele’s mentor Gustav Klimt also used partial exposures for his portrait drawings. The subject pictured here to the right, for example, was a sketch for a large mural. Klimt’s vivid paintings would often maintain this partial exposure as the full body other than the face and unclothed flesh would melt into the background by way of fragmented, vibrant ornamentation. In this sketch, the cloth draped body is outlined with quick lines.

I am very much drawn to the inclusion of abstraction by emission in these drawings. An idea for a future series is a couple dozen portrails all drawn partially exposed–only the flesh will be worked, the rest of the body either blank or reduced to the flatness of quickly sketched outline. I have a collection of historical portrait photographs that I have never quite figured out how to use as subject matter. Partial exposure drawings from these are the solution–art by omission of all non-exposed flesh, and therefore all historical context. Terrific way of processing expressions frozen long ago through my experience into something that is present. A beautifully candid peek into a very far away life. Hmmm.

Prints in mind:

1. New plate of “Minna”, etched using hard ground in three stages
2. A “Grimace”, etched using hard ground and in two stages. Only composed of thin lines, the lines converge to countour and clash into a convoluted human expression.
3. A three-plate print using the general series “General 1,” “General 2,” and “General 3.” All etched using hard ground in three stages with additional darkening using drypoint.
4. An abstract line profile etched using hardground.

Not entirely convinced of the remaining print, but this might be (pending finding satisfying subject matter/creating an engaging plate):

1. Urban landscape “Layered city” created using softground etching or drypoint, perhaps hand coloured after printing.
2. Akvatint etching “Mothertree”

Creating this portfolio as a blog will allow me a linear track on which to set my aims, log in my process and advancement, mark my attainments, and archive my musings and discoveries.