Week Nine - The week before easter, printing portraits.

It is the final week before Easter and I still have a lot of printing left to do and preparation for after Easter. I started this week completing the portrait of my Dad. After correcting the disproportions in his face I was really happy with how this overall portrait looks. Out of all the portraits I have drawn this one feels most successful in terms of technique and detail, the line work in the face feels less clunky and harsh than on the first portrait I ever did, instead here it is delicate.

Above shows the progression from drawing, to being etched, to the eventual printing. Putting them side by side on here really shows the effectiveness of the sepia ink I am using for all my portraits, it changes the feel of the portrait, to me making it feel more human then drawing. Bringing out an expressional quality that is gentle and calming. Everything I wanted to achieve when drawing these portraits of my family.

I also began work on this new portrait of my friend half way through the week, starting this felt very natural and really the face formed well from the beginning of the drawing. The longest section was the hair, I didn't want the hair to be too finely drawn or take away from the face as I wanted it to feel quite loose and natural, so I tried to use quite broad long strokes to achieve this quality.

This is the final print, I had a slight bit of trouble with the top of the hair as the ink very quickly became too thick in the darkest areas creating a bit of excess on the print which didn't look great. But by ensuring that I rolled off the excess ink enough before printing I got some good prints from this stone.

So I now have 6 out of 7 big portraits finished for my exhibition, it has definitely been challenging drawing and printing these portraits this semester but I have felt such an improvement in my technical skill and ability to adapt when things haven't gone too well. After Easter I need to work on the last portrait and a few smaller ones and then getting the aboriginal inspired symbols/shapes onto all of these portraits to finish.