The Future

This is a dry point etching done on a sheet of plexiglass. It's based on a high graduation picture, the young woman has her whole future lying ahead. Will her plans unfold as she imagines? Using plexiglass makes things easy, because you can use the original image as a guide to create the desired image.

In a dry point etch, a very pointy and sharp needle is used to scratch into the material, this may be a copper plate, plexiglass, lexon or any other smooth material that will allow a line to be incised. When incising a line into the material, a small burr or rough edge is left along the edge of the line. To make the print, the entire plate is inked, then the excessed ink is wipe away, leaving ink in the incised lines, and that captured in the burr. It is the ink captured in the burr that give the image the deeper tonal qualities. Unfortunately, the number of prints that can be made is limited. With each inking and wiping, some of the burr is removed. So from time to time, the plate needs to be re-scratched, but this obviously cannot be done indefinitely.