I recently attended a one day drypoint workshop taught by Hester Cox at Artison in Masham. Hester was a great teacher - her explanations were clear and in depth and she was patient and encouraging to all of us - most of us were complete beginners with the technique.
I had chosen to try out drypoint because I enjoy drawing and this technique seems to be a way of incorporating lots of ways of mark making into my work.
Hester provided us with a resource sheet describing the technique and also with lots of reference material - examples of works in drypoint and also drypoint with chine collé were spread around the benches at the side of the room and she also provided links to the websites of numerous artists working in drypoint:
Of the artists listed, I have selected a few whose work particularly interests me:
I love the simplicity of Farmer's drypoint prints. The quality of the line is delicious and flowing like that obtained with rapid continuous line drawing. Some of her designs are quite minimal such as her three finches - she has simplified the forms in a very satisfying way - excluding extraneous details. Others such as her coot (which is actually an etching rather than a drypoint) cotton multiple vigorous lines to suggest the form. Wonderful.
This artist's use of drypoint is much finer - some of his drawings resemble botanical or scientific drawings. Many of his drypoints feature a single tree or plant surrounded by open and almost featureless space. These make me feel slightly melancholy as they seem to speak of solitude or loneliness.
Kihlman uses many different printing modalities in his work including drypoint. His drypoints are very heavily worked which is contrast to the two other artists above. In many of his works the mark making covers almost the whole of the plate - he creates a dark atmosphere in which patches of light stand out dramatically. Reflections of the sky on the surface of puddles against a dark pavement are particularly evocative. The dramatic difference between the work of these three artists shows the versatility of this medium - there is a lot to learn and try here.
Mary Cassatt
Cassatt was a American Artist who worked in France through most of her adult life and exhibited along with the impressionists. Like the other impressionists, many of her works depict people going about their everyday activities - capturing a moment in time. Her work is special because it mainly depicts women doing everyday things such as caring for children or hanging out the washing: Subjects which would not have been considered suitable for 'high art' before this period. Her drypoints are charming and are a suitable medium for conveying the fleeting nature of the moments she captured with the energy contained in its lines.
Olivia Lomenech Gill
I have included Gill here because I admire the energy of her linework - particularly in her depiction of animals. I also find her use of Chine collé interesting - she has used pages from books as well as brown paper - this gives me more ideas.
Catherine McDonald's work has a satisfying velvety inky blackness about it which I really love. Her silhouetted landscapes with telegraph poles have an air of mystery and again isolation about them.
Hester first gave a us each a small piece of drypoint plastic to experiment on and try to make as many types of mark as possible. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I mainly used the drypoint needle provided but also had a try at using a roulette and a diamond tipped needle which gave texture and a different quality of line - the diamond tipped needle was easier to mark the plate with - especially for curved lines.
The subject matter for the day was to be birds. I had brought some photographs with me for inspiration. I decided to use a photograph of a juvenile black heron having a 'bad hair day'. I really like this quirky looking character. I had already had a couple of tries at drawing this bird freehand without a resounding success so although it felt a bit like cheating I simply placed the photograph under the clear plastic and drew from the photograph. I spent a lot of time hatching to create the very dark tone of the lower part of his body. I was quite pleased with the marks I had made although I felt overall that the composition was a bit imbalanced with everything in the top part of the paper and very little to balance it lower down. I hadn't quite known what to do with his feet as they were missing from my cropped photograph so I'd just randomly put him in water with ripples around his legs but it hadn't occurred to me to put any semblance of shadows into the water.
I really should have gone back and worked into the plate to alleviate this but the day was nearly at an end (the hatching had been time consuming - as well as the numerous stops for coffee and cake and a delicious lunch!). I really wanted to try the chine collé using some of the coloured papers that Hester had brought along. Time was running out so my effort at this was somewhat haphazard. I also used too much glue which squished through the tissue and made quite a mess without actually sticking the paper to the print properly. - this is something to try again at a later date. Hester suggested getting some reversible PVA glue - this means you can pre-glue your chine collé and allow it to dry before using it. The glue becomes tacky again on contact with the damp paper and sticks without the gluey mess everywhere!
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and came away with lots of ideas of further things to try such as using DIY tools or even a soldering iron to make marks on the plate as well as dying my own chine collé papers and using reversible PVA.
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