Watching The World Go By : Dry Point Printing

During the week I have been experiementing with "Dry Point" printing on my illustrations. I havent done any dry point in a number of years so it was good to get back into it. Shadowing and atmosphere were the aspects that i was hoping to achieve. Here is some information about the Dry Point printing process.


Development work : Composition

This image of achieved  by drawing onto a perspex plate of plastic, using a scribe tool. The harder you work onto the perspex the deeper the line and the darker the line will be once printed. Also the closer the lines are scribed together, the more ink in that area and the deeper the tone. Different line qualities are achieved by presser applied to the  scribe, line direction and various techniques. Other techniques examples could be cross hatching, dots or circles, each will have its own print quality. Remember that when you print your work, it will be the reverse image of what is scribed on the plate.

 

 

Development Work : Atmosphere / Tone



Once your plate is scribed, it is then inked up using oil based etching ink. The plate is then rubbed down using fabric known as "Scrim" and then acid free tissue. Meanwhile watercolour paper should have been soaking in preparation, this the then blotted down, to remove any excess water. The plate is then rested on the printing press bed while the paper is placed on top of it, then they are sent through the press.

 

 

TA Dah....

 

 



Close up
 

Once your image has been printed you can see if you would like to alter the piece , you can work back into the plate to achieve deeper lines, although when using perspex for this method, it has a limited printing ability. Which means that line quality and clarity will alter after it has been printed a number of times. This method of printed can also be done using a copper plate which would be more durable. This is merely the tip of the ice-berg in what can be created as various colours and interacting plates open up so many possibilites.