The goal: To turn solid shapes into line drawings, create variations on the theme and translate these into a workable design to print.

Stage 1 of this exercise started by using photos of Walking Irises in my garden.  I developed and abstracted the flowers and added other components.

Stage 2 I worked on the individual aspects and created a composition, culminating in an etched solar plate ready for printing.

This final stage shows the printed images including the best print, hand-coloured (seeing as I’m enjoying my Inktense pigment pencils so much).

Above left: Black oil based ink + 40% extender on 250gsm Arches 88 paper. Right: Dairylide yellow/ultramarine blue/black mix + 40% extender on 125gsm cartridge proofing paper.

Above: Black oil based ink + 40% extender, magenta mix (from another person using the studio), Inktense pigment pencils, on 250gsm Arches 88 paper.

Great outcome, learned a lot from this exercise and the resulting prints.