Creating the Red Wattlebird Etching - Part 3 - Proofing The Plate

Before I work any more into the red wattlebird plate I want to see how it prints up so far. This means I'm going to 'proof' the plate. I will ink it up and see how the marks I've made so far look when printed. This will help me figure out what else I need to do to the plate. It'll let me know what is working and what isn't. This plate has been a bit more experimental, I've used acid in areas to create tone, I've used a burnisher to make whiter lines. I need to see if these techniques are working when printed before I do more.

I begin by applying ink all over the plate. The ink is oil based printmaking ink and is thick, more like buttery paint than what non-printmakers might think of as ink. I then rub the ink into all the scratched lines and acid bitten areas with a loosely woven cloth called tarlatan (I sometimes also just use cheesecloth.) Then once the ink has been rubbed in enough I start to wipe off the excess ink with another piece of tarlatan, leaving the ink just in the marks in the plate. I will go into more depth of this process in a later blog post when I come to edition this piece. 

I place the inked up plate onto the press bed with damp paper on top and run it through the press. The ink is transferred from the plate onto the paper. 

And this is what it looks like so far...

I'm really pleased with how the spit bite has turned out.

I'll probably use a different colour to ink it up next time, but this gives me a clearer picture of where to work more into the plate and what to do next. Its a very handy reference piece! I may still make a few more proofs as I keep making this plate and then experiment with different colours of ink before I decide to edition. Editioning is when you've finished making the plate... you've decided how you're going to ink it up, which colours etc, and so you print multiples all looking as close to each other as you can. I normally keep my editions small, maybe 10 or 20. Each print in the edition is inked up individually by hand, meaning every time you ink up the plate you can only get one print from it. The inking up process has to be repeated for each print in the edition. So I want to make sure I get it all correct before I begin the editioning stage!

So I'll be working more on this plate this week, and we'll see the results.