Chris Christodoulou: Southwark One Day, Drypoint
FEATURE
Drypoint
Using a sharp pointed tool like an etching needle, an image is scratched into a flat polished sheet of metal such as copper or aluminium. Plastic or card can also be used.
TECHNIQUE
Drypoint
Using a sharp pointed tool like an etching needle, an image is scratched into a flat polished sheet of metal such as copper or aluminium. Plastic or card can also be used.
Ink is worked into the image and excess ink wiped away.
Paper is placed on top of the plate and printed using an etching press. Drypoint lines are often described as blurry, with a velvety feel.
more printmaking techniques
Etching
Etching was originally invented as a method for adding decoration to armour during the Middle Ages. Artists began to use metal plates for printing in the 15th century, when Albrecht Durer made work on iron plates. Later artists such as Andrea Mantegna in Italy and Rembrandt in Holland went on to make etchings on copper.
More Features
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“Revealing the unknown is always the thing I’m interested in”
SooMin Leong’s practice focuses on the transition from one place to another, both through literal journeys and the many stages that go into making her prints. Each is a story informed by the experience and impression of travelling. We interviewed her about her own journey into printmaking.
Daydreaming through decoration
“I felt like I was in multiple spaces at the same time – the studio, my source material, my paintings – and I really lost myself in the process of making. I had this epiphany that if I inhabited my paintings long enough then the experience of looking at them would contain the dysphoria I felt, because that’s how art works, it’s a sort of a mirror.”