It wasn't easy, but nothing is............

After finishing a sculpture I started many moons ago,I decided to have a little fun with it, colorful fun that is. Interesting thing about this sculpture; it is based on a pen and ink drawing I did awhile back "Growing Together" . My wife and I live a modest life in a modest house that is supplied with an arsenal of artistic weapons. It's our sanctuary, and we rarely seem to stray from it, at least for the last 5 years now. During that time we seem to have grown together, and made quite a content life for ourselves, both of us pursuing our art. I began drawing these man and woman themed pen and ink studies where the two were physically growing together. This 1st sculpture in a series I hope to do. It took some time to complete because of time issues and also a wandering mind that led me astray. When I did have time to sit and work on it my mind was not where it should have been and I veered off and added a bunch of design elements that had no real purpose and did not add to the story. I had a moment of clarity the other day and began lopping off the dead wood, so to speak. When I was done stripping it down, I found myself back at the original drawing. I think I have learned something from this, and if not I hopefully will be able to see more clearly when I am making poor design decisions:)

etching proof

Here's a look at an etching proof I ran tonight. I'm rather pleased with the direction that my etchings are headed in. I scribbled on this plate off and on for the last few weeks during my breaks at work, along with scribbling on quite a few pen and ink drawings I have not finished yet. This plate was a bit of an experiment to try and see the kind of detail in line I can get to hold up through the acid biting process, I think it faired pretty well, and I think I can take it much further. Once I get through these last few plates and start working in copper with ferric chloride I think I can take it still even further. The ferric chloride bites straight down, so there's less expansion of line during the biting, which equals more detail holding up:)