Project: The Boatshed

I drew this boatshed some time ago from a photo I took on Cockatoo Island. Whilst it’s a good rendition, I sketched it quite lightly which made it difficult to transfer to a zinc plate for etching.

Using Photoshop, the saturation and contrast were increased, enabling the image to be visible in more detail when transferring to the zinc plate.

It was also flipped to be in reverse on the plate. This is important when working with text.

The zinc plate was prepared: edges bevelled, surface cleaned and hard ground applied.

The reversed image was transferred to the plate, before drawing the basics into the hard ground with an etching tool. The plate was placed into a nitric acid/water bath for the initial etching.

The hard ground was removed and rosin aquatint applied to the entire plate before further blockout was applied to the areas I wished to remain light. NOTE: Click here for a full description of rosin aquatinting and blockout/masking

Proof print of stage 1 before further etching – colour Graphic Chemical sepia

The plate was submerged into the acid bath again for a short time. After rinsing, blockout was applied to more of the surface – the areas to be a mid tone – then back into the bath. The process was repeated with less areas exposed to the acid, creating darker tones when printed.

Proof print of stage 2 before corrections – colour Graphic Chemical black

The plate was cleaned and printed, which showed up small etching mistakes around the base of the boat and the boat stand. Using an etching needle and magnifier I imitated the surrounding areas by cross-hatching and dotting into them.

Using steel wool, some of the shadowed side of the boat was burnished – then scuffed up with an etching needle to create texture. Parts of the foreground boatshed siding were also burnished.

Proof print of final plate – colour Charbonnel raw sepia

The plate is complete but will be reprinted in black ink which will accentuate the detail better than either of the sepia inks.