Edinburgh revisited - Day 1 Drawing the stone

At the beginning of November I spent another two days working in the studio at Edinburgh Printmakers. I wanted to consolidate what I had learned on the weekend course by drawing a new stone and producing another lithograph - this time working more independently. Alastair was still on hand to offer advice though!

This time I worked on a larger stone (A2) which needed grinding with a levigator and carborundum, a coarse grit, to remove the previous image - another new skill under my belt! It can be quite heavy going at first and quite tricky until you get in the swing of it.

A quick check that the stone surface was completely flat, then it was time to get to work on that inviting surface. Again I used the tuche crayons and washes to make an image of the Aiguille du Midi on the Mont Blanc massif.

The washes took a while to dry, even with the help of a fan heater.

Time for a quick cup of tea, then back to work processing the stone - coating it with gum arabic to preserve the white areas and then removing the tuche. It's quite worrying as you see all your drawing disappearing!

However, the tuche is very greasy and leaves its residue in the stone. Priming it with a little black ink magically restores the drawing as it sticks to the greasy areas and is easily washed away from the areas protected by the gum.  

And that was it for the day! Time flies when you're having fun!

Back tomorrow to print it!