Description
The contrast between the dark naked trees and the light of the pale winter sun was my interest in this piece.
The little collection of miniature mezzotints was started out of frugality and gradually became a love interest on the side.
A supplier of ready-rocked mezzotint plates Martin Maywood, on my request, used to send me little off-cuts of the plates enclosed with 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 find often, having some limitation to start with (in this instance the given size and shape of a plate) directs my mind towards a solution. Thus the limitation becomes an aid.
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.
