📙 #012 Etching to get started

(and that's still better than any of the puns ChatGPT came up with)

Feb 21, 2023

I managed to make a proper mess last week, and it was great.

Longtime followers will recognise the "Ghost" design here. It's a simple spiral, distorted over it's length with Perlin Noise. Most often generated using my SVG tool over here: https://revdancatt.com/penplotter/021-Perlin-Spiral and playing with various sliders, mainly the yOffsets and "flouncy" settings.

It sort of became a signature drawing machine design for me. Meanwhile over in digital NFT land I'm more well known for my "Pop" design.

However, the Ghost was my first foray into NFTs two years ago, when I still wan't 100% sure if it was even something I wanted to do. I created a project called "Thirteen Ghosts”, the idea being someone can buy a digital animated version of the design, and then have a single frame from it pen plotted. The first six were standard black ink on watercolour paper, the next four were silver on black (all those ten have gone now). The penultimate two are golden on black, the only time I'll plot the design in gold ink full-sized on black A3 paper.

The plan was, still is, that once all those twelve have been sold I'd release the 13th Ghost, as a copper plate etching, with both the print and copper plate itself framed together and shipped wherever around the world.

I was somewhat nervous that they'd all sell and then I'd actually have to do it before I was ready. I'd already done a couple of tests just to make sure it was possible, but soon after that I moved into a space that didn't have the room for a press. So I kinda just kept quiet about it, hoping the whole thing would fly under the radar for a while. Now and then an intrepid art collector would rummage around, discover the ghosts and buy one. Getting me dangerously close to having to do something about it.

Until that is, four things happened...

I moved into my new studio.
I bought a printing press.
I noticed people starting sniffing around my older work again, including the Ghosts.
I got asked to submit some photos of pen plotting for an upcoming book about drawing machines.

Now, I'm passionate about drawing machines and pen plotting, and I figured if there was a chance to show that they’re more than just pens in machines (and I'm sure other artists will be doing this too), I should take it.

I was also super short of time, with looming deadlines. I figured that if I waited until everything was perfect it'd never happen, so this was the push I needed to just grab the ink, press, soak some paper and have a quick test.

The process is known as Intaglio etching, or dry-point etching (unless you're being particularly picky). Unlike other forms of print where you cut/erode away the parts you DON'T want printing, leaving just the design remaining to ink up and press, here the parts you etch are going to be what gets printed. You grab your intaglio ink, which is thick, black and sticky, force it into all the grooves you've made, wipe off the excess and then press some damp paper down onto it as hard as you can.

The point of doing this was two fold; get some nice photos (and video) for the book, and check that everything is working. I managed to screw up the print by failing to hit record on the camera while running it through the press, and I decided just run it through a second time to get the shots I needed.

I will do the FINAL_FINAL.etch properly, of course, and then frame it so the plate can't be used again. This is a one shot (well, three, the printer's proof I just did, the artist's proof I'll do next, then the actual print) deal, before I figure out what to print next.

Answers to questions I've gotten about this in the past and the last week.

No, you don't have to use a copper plate, I've done test prints with zinc plates and acrylic sheets. This is done in copper to be fancy-pants for the photos.
The tool I used was titled "Tungsten Carbide Tip Scriber Etching Pen Marking Engraver Metal Tool TO115" on Amazon by someone trying to cover all their SEO bases. So yes, any pointy pen like thing with a tip harder than copper will do.
I only had to run the plot once, you don't have to etch much for this to work. Although if you can, running it twice is probably a good idea.
It's fine to have a line crossing another, the scribe doesn't "catch".
Yeah, you can have parallel lines that run too close, but I honestly wouldn't worry about it.
Yes, it's great that you can do designs where the pen won't run out, and you can keep going over the same spot without tearing up the paper.
The press is a small one, this is the one I got from eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234790594328 - along with a suitably appalling video:
No, I didn't have to do anything to the copper plate other than laying it flat and making sure it doesn't move, then sticking the scribe in the machine. After that it's just like doing a normal pen plot.

Now I've hit my deadline I can pack it all away again until I have some more free time!
Here's the plate and print together.

Work/Life balance update.

In non pen plotting news, on the understanding that I will run out of money unless I actually finish my 80s Pop: Roxy 🍿 project, last week and this week (aside from Newslettering today, obvs) has all been about pushing that towards completion.

I'm in the final throws of it now, where if I'm not careful I'll hit diminishing returns of constant tweaking as I oscillate between loving it and utter self doubt that I'll ever make anything good ever again. You know, the usual.

The Pop project started with 70s Pop, and was an attempt to be something FUN and not taking itself too seriously. The downside of this is that I've kind of locked myself into completing the series (70s Pop, 80s Pop, Pop95 & 70s Pop: Deluxe) on Art Blocks before I can move onto doing other things on that platform. This isn't a complaint AT ALL, I love doing these, but you know, sometimes you also want to be seen as a "Serious Artist" with "proper work".

80s Pop: Roxy 🍿 is still me having fun in the world of retro nostalgia. However very subtly (and no so much) it's a bridge between where 70s Pop was and where we'll end up. It's the first break away from the old square format to a new "print friendly" ratio. It also has callback hints to the Summertime edition, while literally sunsetting that design.

It's entertaining grabbing bits of bobs from what's come before it, while testing out code that I know I'm going to need for future work

Pretty sure I over-think things for something that presents as being fairly simple, but I suspect that's true of a lot of art

Anyway, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself and the time I've carved out to focus on wrapping it up

Here are a few close-ups of designs in a style that most likely won't make it into the final project, on the grounds of looking too much like 60/70s print for the 80s vibe I'm going for. Which is kinda irritating because I sort of love them.

I suspect another print project spin-off will be in the works. More on that once I've had a chance to think about it a bit (perhaps woodblock, perhaps riso??).

Video update!

I've been aiming for releasing a video every Tuesday, having made it the week before, and a "Weeknotes" (What are “Weeknotes”) every Friday because apparently I enjoy giving myself too much to do.

Well, as mentioned above, last week (and this week) is all about finishing 80s Pop, so I decided to skip a couple of weeks of making videos and to force myself to somehow be happy with that.

I couldn't bring myself to do it, instead I did something I'd been thinking about for a while, but hadn’t on the grounds that it almost certainly won't be very popular. But then that hasn't stopped me from making all my other videos, so here we go.

We live in a fast paced world of "Shorts" and "Reels" and "Vines" and, wait? We don't do Vines now? I can't keep up. Anyway, even though I'm not really into this short-form vertical stuff, I have kind of absorbed the need for faster editing and quick cuts, apparently people can only concentrate for so long.

But at the same time when I do post videos with snippets of pen plotting in, I'll often get the odd comment going "I love watching the pen plotter, it's like ASMR, I could watch it plotting for hours", and I think "Should I do like an hour long plotting video, of just the plotter doing its thing?". To which the answer is NO.

To make my life easy this week though and to sneak a video out, I did decide to set a quick 10 minute plot away and just do a real-time, no cuts, single shot, no background music video (apart from the first 10 seconds). I'm one of those people who could watch the machine running for hours, which is why I have to force myself not to, otherwise I'd get even less done.

Last Tuesday's video was a re-doing of a talk I gave in Bournemouth last year, about the difference between coding as an engineer and coding as an artist.

Meanwhile the last two Weeknote videos are below. If you don't watch anything else I highly recommend 00:24 to 06:10 of the first video, which is pretty darn chill and covers the copper plate etching.