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Managed to get the first acquatint done on PB4 this week; proof below. It looks a little dark but with successive etchings and some burnishing maybe, it'll work well I think. It's a good state. It won't be printed in black... sepia probably. Well, Pharaoh anyway. Still thinking about colour for the other elements. That won't come together until much later in the process. I'm pleased with it so far though.
I've been feeling a bit demotivated with this etching the last few weeks. It's partly looking at all the Meadus paintings I think, got a hankering to paint. Silly excuse really. And I can't think of a subject to paint either - even sillier excuse.
Anyway, the first Cowprint meeting of the year is next week and I wanted to have something to show for the two months since we last met (other than the Chicken Murderer) so that spurred me on. There's nothing like a deadline to get you working, even if it's self-imposed.
I keep thinking that this frenetic pace of life must surely slow down at some point; get such-and-such thing out of the way and it should go quiet for a bit. Who am I trying to kid. Something unexpected always crops up to throw my schedule off. This month it's been an overflowing water tank... from the loft through two sets of ceilings and three carpets. Damaged ceilings, damaged walls, sodden carpets... fun. I haven't had a chance to do anything about it yet though, apart from drying everything out of course, because the Aged Parent injured her leg severely shortly after that so after an entire weekend at Accident and Emergency (by way of a flat tyre and a new hearing aid chewed up by the cat), we've been shuttling back and forth to the surgery every few days to have the wound dressed. Now it has become infected so we have antibiotics, more frequent trips to the surgery, INR blood tests and me doing my best waitressing as the Aged P has to keep her leg up as much as possible.
Despite that, I have mostly managed to get to work, sell Cowprint calendars and fit in a little bit of artwork. The chicken murderer has moved on a little. I made the solar plate but it didn't go terribly well so I've had to cut bits out of it to get it to print better. Also, my etching solution is very much spent so the last bite didn't work out too well. Tasks for this weekend, other factors allowing, are to print the solar plate to see how it's doing and whether it needs more work, mix a new batch of copper sulphate solution and do some more work on the fox himself. He doesn't have enough tonal contrast at the moment so some burnishing back and further etching are needed. Here's hoping nothing else crops up...
