Well. It has certainly been a while since I last updated my blog.
That will change. Expect more regular updates from me, starting with this one.

So what have I been doing over this last year?

I have been getting to grips with Photoshop, as up until recently, the majority of my work has been hand-made; done in the ‘traditional’ manner. To give me practice with it, I have been doing a bit of fashion design, greetings card design and have had some of my illustrations published on-line in a children’s book.

I discovered very quickly, that there is an awful lot to learn!

[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157629848433731"]

With my Master’s degree now completed, I wanted to take the depiction of the story characters further, and so decided to attend a printing workshop run by Alan Birch, in Waterfoot, near Rawtenstall.

I spent the day burning out tones for etching, using an composition of Hatty and Izzie together. It was a fantastic day, and I was so engrossed in the process, that I didn’t notice the hours fly by!

The results of the workshop are below, and comprise a linear image, printed before the toning was added, then the second print with the tone palette on the left hand edge, followed by the etching plate itself and finally the third print with all of the toning detail added.