For an introduction to the art of dry print printing ( Intaglio or “taking away”) the class worked at The Imperial War museum to open up ourselves to ‘mark making’ , A series of exercises of observation and rapid drawing, followed by more considered drawings with tone and line. The subject of war, the essential exhibit of the IWM was irevelevent but gave a very rich source of people, interesting objects, and good architecture. I explored and enjoyed the challenges of varied and rapid mark making.

Personally some of the exhibits upset me in an unexpected way. I went back and drew and photographed them

I had worked for many years in an armoured vehicles similar to the Reuters Land Rover, and very close friends died in a Baghdad car bomb similar to the ‘ art work’ exhibited by Jeremy Deller . I did find drawing the armoured vehicle a relief and helped my confront my demons. .https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/sep/09/iraq-car-imperial-war-museum-jeremy-deller

With our mornings practise in considered mark making we head a fascinating introduction to Intaglio, specifically ‘drypoint’. we were introduced to the principle of scratching marks into the smooth surfaces of polycarbonate and coated card. Using a sharpened steel tools, sandpaper, and other forms of cutting into the surface of the medium. The principle of the surface holding the ink was carefully explained along with the principle of the burr or the material raised by the cutting steel and its ability to also hold ink. With intaglio printing the ink is worked into the cut surface, inking and removing the ink with a rough cloth scrim or tarleton has a great effect on the finished print. Examples were printed and even the rough trial prints were objects of beauty. Cleary there is a lot to learn about cutting, marking, inking, and t it was immediately very exciting and interesting. I was very interested to hear of printers working on their plates ‘en plein aire’ and in live drawing studios. We were dispatched back to IWM to cut our first plates. I was drawn back to the Land Rover and scored my polycarbonates, possibly a little deeply, I wait for my first prints with impatience. I am very interested in the variety of forms of marking and will experiment with sand paper and stencils this week.