Last Minute Panic - Backdrawing Revisted

It was only when selecting my prints to send to my tutor that I realised I had not fully completed the backdrawing segment. I had completed several drawings using backdrawing but all of these had come from photographic sources rather than being drawn from life. I had also not followed through with my intention of trying out Gauguin's technique of drawing directly onto the back of relatively thin paper to see if that would give me a finer line. I was away from home by this time and the weather was pretty rubbish so I decided to do this at West Yorkshire print workshop. I stopped at the florist across the road from the workshop to pick up a subject - lighting on a hyacinth in a decorative zinc pot (largely because it was the least expensive item in the shop!) .

As luck would have it I was the only person using the print room on that particular day so I was able to roll out several colours of ink onto the glass inking-up surfaces and do the back drawing directly over the surfaces without having to use plates of pieces or paper loaded with ink. I mixed up a warm pale green, a dark blue-green and a terra-cotta orange as well as using indigo and warm yellow inks without adulteration. For my first attempt I had the pot placed on a windowsill slightly above me. The only problem with this was that my position relative to the pot changed every time I changed colour because each colour was on a different section of the bench. There was a lot of accidental ink transfer in the background and I also realised that the flower was the lightest part with the background being slightly darker so I drew into the background with the indigo ink - I overdid it somewhat so decided to make another attempt.

On my second attempt I kept the plant next to me on the bench so I could move it and keep my position relative to it almost constant. First I drew the outline of the negative shapes around the flower before proceeding to draw into the body of the flower, bulb and pot. Overall this one was a bit more successful as I had resisted the temptation to draw into the background. The ellipse at the top of the flower pot was wildly inaccurate however.

My final attempt was a close up of a section of the flowers. I was happier with this effort and was pleased with the relative subtlety that the technique of drawing directly onto the back of thin Japanese paper allowed.