“I wanted to do something really intimate, really small that didn’t draw an attention to itself….that was about intimate viewing.” Jacob Samuel, New Ground 2023
Etching is a commitment, but this course is designed in small learning portions. Participants can sign up for the sessions they are interested in. Each session will focus on a particular etching technique. We will begin each session with a demonstration of the technique followed by plenty of shop time to complete the print.
While sequential, these sessions are designed as independent workshops for beginning to intermediate students. Each session fee includes all your tools and materials necessary to complete a 5” x 7” print.
Line
First Session: Saturdays, January 6 – February 24, 2024 – 12:30pm to 4pm
Contact: Stefanie Dykes – stefanie.dykes822@gmail.com to reserve your place in the class.
Maximum 6 participants
Students will be working on copper plates and drawing with etching needles to create their imagery. We will be using a traditional hard ground application to draw through and expose the copper. Once the image is complete, students will submerge the copper plate in the etching bath to incise the drawing below the surface of the copper plate. We will cover basic copper plate preparation, image transfer, hard ground application, etching the image, ink applications and printing the plate with Saltgrass Printmakers’ Takach etching press.
Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Saturdays, January 6, 13 & 24, 2024 – 12:30pm to 4pm
Class Fee: $135.00 includes 5” x 7” copper, etching needle/burnisher, ink, BFK Rives printmaking paper and everything else! If you have your own etching tools, class fee is $125.00.
Line & Tone
“Discovering a new tool or a new medium was for him…an incentive for finding new ways for creating images.” David Hockney The Complete Early Etchings 1961-1964
Second Session: February 3, 10 & 24, 2024 – 12:30pm to 4pm
For the second session, we will be adding tone & value to our images. We will start with a line etched image and then apply an aquatint. We will cover the basics for applying an aquatint (so called because aquatints can look like watercolor washes) to establish values within the image. We will look at David Hockney and his early autobiographical etchings and Paula Rego’s nursery rhythm etchings. This session can be coupled with the etching one session.
**I’m thinking about building our own DIY Claude glass which is a tool for drawing to help compress the value range. With a Claude glass, visible tones go from near black to some sort of grey. The Claude Glass appears to group images into a limited number of similar values. Many artists seem to work within a simplified tonal range, and this helps to give clarity to the image.
Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Class Fee: $135.00 includes 5” x 7” copper, etching needle/burnisher, ink, BFK Rives printmaking paper and everything else! If you have your own etching tools, class fee is $125.00.
A $25.00 non-refundable deposit will be required to hold your spot. Contact Stefanie Dykes stefanie.dykes822@gmail.com.