Print Series 2

Source material as inspiration:
Striated muscle fibres of the heart.  Again, I zoomed into the detail.

Drawing the design:
After a brief outline drawing I scratched directly into 1mm polycarbonate sheet and .5mm PVC clear film (acetate).

The prints:
Proofing the first plate.

Solid image, good definition.

Second plate with basic etching.  Added further etching prior to next run.

Very heavy black.  Not quite enough definition in red sections.  Redid the red plate etching prior to next run.

Better etching in the red sections.  To much red remaining as plate tone.  No time to redo, class concluded.

Learning outcome:

• Even using a diamond tipped etching tool I find manually etching into plastic difficult and VERY time consuming.  Curves are particularly challenging.
• If I continue this technique I need to attempt etching using a Dremel power tool.
• The beauty of this type of hand etching is that you can get fine lines and further work into the plastic to evolve or improve a design.
• PVC plastic collapses after 3-4 prints so if editioning is required then a different method of printing should be chosen.
• Judging the removal of plate tone from plastic can be challenging when ink is thinned by 80-90% with translucent extender.  Almost impossible to see how much unwanted ink remains.  A lot of trial and error comes into play.
• The addition of acetate over-/under-layers as cutaway sections is new to me and I’d like to pursue that in the future.
• As Tony said before we started, “You either like hand etching or you don’t.  Not everyone takes to it”.  I’m undecided, but erring towards yes for acid/copper sulphate bath zinc plate etching and no for hand tool plastic etching.