Description
Print from my miniature series of flowers, fruits and vegetables.
A supplier of ready-rocked mezzotint plates Martin Maywood, on my request, used to send me little off-cuts of the plates enclosed in my larger orders. These were all sorts of sizes and shapes and a variety of ground density (it can be very fine shallower ground or a rougher and deeper one with variations in between).
I was on a lookout for simple interesting subjects to perfect my technique on those smaller scale plates. Also, making them helped me in figuring out what works best for a mezzotint look.
An orchid seemed a perfect subject for a mini-mezzotint, with its white delicate petals and the sun seeping through them. After all, mezzotint is all about the light and dark.
Mezzotint is one of the intaglio printmaking techniques. It is similar to drypoint. The big advantage of the mezzotint method is its capacity to achieve tonal variations which no other printmaking technique has.
