The Process of a Hand-pulled Drypoint Print from a Plexiglass Plate

This is the story of an experiment of hand-pulling a dry-point print with oil paint and a acrylic sheet as a plate.  

I had this charcoal sketch that  I liked, but the fixative I sprayed on it  came out in globs and ruined the canvas. So I took pictures of it and am experimenting with many techniques of transferring and printing. 

This time, it's drypoint.

I taped an acrylic sheet to the top of a print out of the charcoal sketch so it wouldn't move while I was scratching the lines I wanted. The image itself is designed to be 8"x10."

This is part of the mark-making in progress.

Here is the finished plate on a black paper background to check the linework.

This is the inked plate and the oil paint I used to ink it. I learned from a few failed pulls to mix it with a bit of paint thinner first. 

I also used a dollar store squeegee to wipe off most of the paint at first, and paper napkins to clean up the edges--but not rub over the lines, if possible. 

Here are a few failed pulls. I also used a paper with too much texture, and it didn't get in the crevices.

I tried acrylic paint too, but it was my technique that wasn't working.

Here are my successful pulls!  For the scope of this project, I used no cloth under my brayer rolling pin, and instead also rubbed it with a smooth glass lid as well, and it it really worked.

 





This is my favorite print right now. I think I will try to make 5-7 altogether, and mat them to put on Etsy as editions!!!

The Poor Artist's Etching/Drypoint Process

Actually printed with acrylic paint!

I'm cheap. I didn't realize how fancy etching was until I looked at a few
YouTube videos and saw what in the process I was missing.

But I love the line quality in etches, so I'm not giving up just yet.


 I got a tiny block of lino to practice on. It's two sided, so there will be another tiny etching to make next.

Tools of the cheap trade:

After cutting and scratching out the shape on the lino with my knife, I used my finger to push paint into the crevices. I used a dollar store squeegee to get the extra paint off.

I did soak the paper a bit too.

To make the pull I put down a clean sheet of paper to protect my wood floor.
Next, I placed my lino plate on it, and put my damp watercolor paper on top of it carefully.
On top of the damp paper I laid a terry washcloth, something nice and squishy and fluffy to push the paper down. Then I took my rolling pin (brayer) and went over the pile from bottom to top with the most even pressure I could manage.









I peeled off each layer carefully and this is my result!

I even took two pulls from the one inking.

This is addicting. I want to do more! I'd like to work on tightening the lines that print, which might work with a thinner printing agent anyway. I'd also like to try multi-color and two-plate etching, maybe an ecorche.