Beginning Tests for my Final Etchings

The beginning.

I have now started off my etching towards creating my final set and answer to the brief. Here are some tests, done onto one of the little squares that my Father helped me to make out of an old copper pipe.

I tried a blend of inks on my etching plate and am quite pleased with the results. I think that the burnt umber and the turquoise work quite harmoniously together, and the blue centring around the staff creates a bit of a sense of magic, and power emanating from it - which is exactly the appearance/sense that it gives off in the book. The fourth image is about the only that has this look though, on the others some of them the blue and brown inks have become to blended/mixed together which just gives it an appearance of looking really flat. 

Points to Remember and to Take on board:

• Etchings will print backwards, I must bear this in mind when doing the actual etching drawing onto the plate.
• Some of the textural marks didn't come out very successfully, they were just a bit too faint, so I must make sure that they are engraved enough when I make them, and also that if it helps I give it enough time in the acid bath.
• I didn't soak my paper for long enough. Need to remember this for the future, a way to remind myself is to make sure that I have put it in to soak before I start to ink up my plate.
• It would probably pay off to use even better quality paper, like watercolour paper next time.

Consideration of how my etching can exist as a larger print if I use larger paper to print it onto and 'frame it with'. (It's also really quite hard to align it in the centre when just placing it on top!)