Drypoint 'Crow' by Peter Gander

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Very interesting account, and this sort of print makes ideal book plates and illustrations; you need a fair amount of room available to you to do this, I imagine.

Hi Robert, Thanks for your comments. Yes, I'm lucky enough to have an outside cabin where I can make a mess! I have just invested in a Gaerstacker roller press so plan to do many more prints.

The Drypoint plate My first ‘Drypoint’ print, ‘Crow’. The soft-edged nature of drypoint was, I thought, ideal for a broody, dark image of a crow. Drypoints are similar to engraving without quite as many stages and fortunately, without the need for chemicals. In a nutshell, they derive their soft pencil-effect nature from the burred egde that results from inscribing a metal plate. Imagine a ploughed field, the furrow is made from the spoil of the cut groove which is thrown up over the edge of the line. A much softer (than etching) effect results, depending on the plate material. Plastic sheet, coated/laminated card and other surfaces with an impermeable surface can also be used. This is an ideal printmaking method for experimenting and mixing with other methods. I used the reverse of a recycled printer's (zinc) plate. You can draw directly onto this surface with a soft pencil/trace or dive right in (which is how I like it). Using a standard needle with a wooden barrel, lines are etched into the plate and can be seen if the plate is angled to the light. It's not really possible unless you're an expert to see if the plate's ready until a first artist's proof is made. This I did and realised that I had been too tentative in my mark-making - the lines were too faint so weren't picking up the ink. So I washed off the (oil-based) ink with a citrus cleaner and went back to the 'scratching'. After further and bolder mark-making, I applied a new layer of ink. This is done by applying a small amount of ink with a piece of scap card directly to the plate and wiping it over the whole area untill it is covered. Taking a special type of cloth called 'scrim', which is a starchy net-like cloth, like an large open-weave linen, this is rolled up into a tight ball in the palm of the hand and wiped softly and repeatedly across the plate until the unwanted ink is removed and the ink inside the burred marks is more visible. As you can see from the background tone in 'Crow', some