A sketch I made of a winter finch was used. I also had some photo reference to use for determining the colours.
I was able to place a sketch underneath and use this as a guide to scribe the lines into the plastic surface.
I constructed a tool to use by drilling a hole into a 6" (15 cm) length of wood dowel into which I pushed in a darning needle. I sharpened the end of the needle by rotating it on a piece of aluminum oxide grit sandpaper.
The plate had Akua carbon black intaglio ink spread across the surface using the edge of an old Itunes card. I then wiped back the surface with a piece of bundled tartalan cloth. I then applied the end of a cotton swab stick to remove ink from areas for more white to show through. I wanted to leave a little plate tone for effect.
acetate plate with inked scribed line and plate tone
resulting print made on Maidstone white rag
A piece of Maidstone all purpose rag paper was misted and placed over top of the plate. I set my felts over top and a piece of newsprint and adjusted the pressure of the roller on my small etching press.
After printing I allowed time for drying (in this case about a week).
Watercolour was also added to another version pulled from the same plate but this time the scribed lines were inked using Paynes Gray.
