Two Crocs

Two Crocs
Originally uploaded by Mariann Johansen Ellis

Right before we left Brunei I started doing some pure relief prints, that is the copperplate is etched to different levels that then take the ink, instead of a line I paint on my image with a brush and stop out of whatever kind you have, ground is OK, but lifts quite quickly, this is "laca de bombilla" the stuff Spanish people use to paint their lightbulbs,,, essential piece of kit for fiestas!!.....discovered I loved this kind of printmaking, not so fussy, I have such a tendency to go all stiff and detail... this felt like it really freed up my hand, but it all got interrupted by our move to Singapore and subsequent impossibility of having access to acid on a regular basis, so now that I am working in Spain again, ACID here I come. (how terribly non green of me, sorry).... relief plates are a bit of hit and miss, you just never know how they are going to print, which is also one of the things I love about this method.... also, discovered that ordinary markers, lots of them, are acid resistant for a short while, clean your copperplate, draw with the marker, stick it in the acid, when the marker starts lifting, take it out, blot off and just top up the marker.. not great for big plates, but small stuff, or seals, excellently simple!..... found this out the hard way, real booboo at a course I gave... nother story.....