I did this etching of my friend, Gabby, in year 12 art. It was one of my final pieces. Looking at it now, she kind of reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s Alice. They are both little and blond.
It is, as I said, an etching on watercolour paper + watercolour paint. I soaked the pages in water and painted on the colour with a broad brush. I tried not to think too much about shape or figure when I painted it, and matched each etching to each piece after it dried by what felt right. Then I ran it through the printing press.
These etchings were so easy to do; I used acetate and a sharp linocutting tool, a process called drypoint. The awesome thing about drypoint on acetate is you can sticky tape a photo underneath and trace the lines, shading in dark spots. Is that cheating? Maybe… who cares when the results are this good!
The only thing with this process is you probably need a proper printing press. When you’re ready to print, you slather the page in this thick block printing ink with a spatula-like surface, making sure you cover all the lines. Then, using paper towel, you scrub the ink away until there’s none on the space around the figures, and no excess in the lines. Place it (carefully, carefully!) on the paper, sandwich it with two more pieces of paper, and run it through the press. I’m not sure if you could do the same thing with a kitchen dough roller, the page might move around too much.
If I redid these, I would crosshatch in the shadows. Otherwise, I still think they’re pretty lovely (most of my artworks don’t stand the test of time; I start thinking they’re shit a few weeks after completion).
There was some sort of order. And I’m missing one of just Christopher (that’s the boy).
The last is my favourite… back down the rabbit hole.
Purple Custard Service Station 
