The Great North Art Show 2012

Good news, I have been selected to exhibit at the Great North Art Show in Ripon.
Here's the information and website for the event:

http://www.greatnorthartshow.co.uk/exhibition2012.html

It runs from 1st - 23rd September, in Ripon Cathedral.

Drypoint using a Dremel

Here's the next drypoint, and I used a new tool, the Dremel Hobby Engraver, for the darkest tones.
The engraver creates really deep dotted pits in the zinc, which hold an amazing amount of ink, which in turn makes for fantastic fuzzy and rich black tones. I'd been looking into trying to make tones very dark and asked a fellow printmaker (Emerson Mayes) what he used. So after buying safety glasses (because I thought metal would be flying everywhere), I started on this piece.
Its from a drawing made last year in my old suburb Crouch End, and is the outside seating area at the Spiazzo diner. It is 37x15cm. I've made an edition of 20, and may be exhibiting it later this year.

Afterwards I added watercolour to one of the lighter prints to see how it would look with colour. It came out 'cute'. Sometimes I like a bit of cute, its relaxing.

The Big Drypoint

As promised the large 45x18cm drypoint of Levens Hall Gardens has been printed. It took 3 days to engrave and 2 days to print to my satisfaction. I used as many different marks as possible, from soft feathery thin lines to thick fuzzy black ones, stopping off at stipples on the way.

It's turning out to be a good way to make prints. I'm excited at the possibilities of using it for portraits, and may also buy some carborundum grit to make really dark black tones for big scary shadows.