The home run

This was how the big print looked when I thought it was finished...

... then I put it up in the studio, and I looked again and realised it wasn't really what I wanted.

I wanted the wall, centre left, to blend better into the background and the background to be darker, so back in the etching tank it went.

This looked better when the image is viewed as a whole. The focus is re-directed better onto the path.
Then I needed to sort the gap in the textures in centre of the lane and the post which wasn't quite there.

After a final judicious use of aquatint the lane textures are linked together and the eye is drawn along the lane more effectively.

And now I think its finished... maybe...

'Turning for home' etching 66 x 44 cm

I do wonder if I might still give this plate the chop - my favourite areas are the main lane leading backwards; in these areas everything has worked as I wanted. A Photoshop crop gives the general idea...

Sometimes less is more?

20:20 hot off the press

I left this print needing more tonal variety. The last stage was therefore a spit bite aquatint. I stopped out with all the usual varnishes but also used a chinagraph pencil in the bottom left corner to add the suggestion of tractor tyre marks, below

One quite well organised (for me) day later and I had the edition printed. Pre-soaking paper makes the world of difference on editioning days.

Multiple happiness - all 25 prints plus a few to ensure consistency

Signed, numbered and ready to be packed off to the lovely people at Hot Bed Press in Salford

'Tug of war' etching, 10 x 10cm on 20 x 20cm paper

The final print - The title had always been there, not a tug between the telegraph poles, nor a remembrance of a war zone. Not even a farmers battle with current economic pressures - although all these interpretations are quite satisfying - but, more prosaically, I was talking to my brother on the phone while I did the original sketch. He told me about winning a tug of war competition - I always think of that when I look at this sketch. I'll leave it up to you which interpretation you want to go with...

Etching - below the surface

The surface of one of the lanes I walk regularly has gone through some rough treatment this last year or so. There are loads more lumps, bumps, ruts, puddles and often rivulets of water to negotiate. (Even now in July!) The surface has been excavated in places, stones have appeared and channels have been eroded.

Fascinating drawing fodder. This sketch provided the impetus for the etching below.

'Surface layers' - etching 40 x 20 cm

The top half stays true to the sketch while the lower half of the plate allowed me to explore the whole notion of surface.

This close up shows a dramatic aquatint intervention which tries to convey the idea of lower layers under the surface becoming exposed.
Fun to move beyond the sketch.