Drypoint

For the last couple of weeks we´ve been working on something called drypoint. It´s a printing technique where you carve the chosen image into a plate with a needle, like shown on the picture above.


The idea behind my picture is sort of spitted up. First of all we were allowed to draw anything we liked mostly, which is really rare in a school assignment, so I wanted something a little unrealistic, but also real. Therefor I created a tiny fantasy picture where I made sizes matter and unreal elements play their part. I like pictures where there are a lot going on, so I tried my best.


In front there´s a tiny tree, and right behind/beside it, there´s a huge butterfly (size matters!). I also have birds and stars all around to create life in it. I desided to frame the whole thing by carving out the ends.

Drypoint is also in the intaglio family. When you carve into the plate and roll it with thick black ink, it will sink into the carved lines with some help from warmth. After that you wipe of all the ink to get a smooth surface before you print it on a piece of paper that´s been lying in water. You can use this link to see how it´s done.

I´m pretty sure that a lot of artists use this technique for their art, but the one I always remember best is Rembrandt. He was one of the first ones to make prints like this. His drypoint prints was often very detailed and he mostly used black ink. You can read about Rembrandt here. Drypoint was invented by the Housebook master. 

Personally I liked this assignment. I´d never tried it before, but it turned out pretty good in my opinion. If you have the right directions and equipment, you should go for it. Printing is always exciting cause you never know exactly how it´s gonna turn out before you´ve actually printed it. You can also create different expressions by just changing the color of either the ink or the paper. 

Through the last weeks I´ve learned a lot about drypoint in the best way possible - actually making one. It´s possible to learn something by reading about it, but there´s nothing that´s more fun and educational as to actually do it. I´ve also learned more about what an intaglio print is. (it´s when the ink lies in the carved out lines and copies on to the paper when you print it.)