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Cope

12" x 9" Copperplate print - 2023

In my final semester in university, I took an intermediate printmaking course. For the first project, we had to make a copperplate print with an aquatint. This was my first time using color on a copperplate print, and while the image generation process took a while, as I was unsure what concept to explore, I eventually landed on coping mechanisms. However, I struggled to figure out how to color the piece. Simply coloring in the image did not sit right with me, the image looked too basic. So I tried a different approach. 

Instead of covering the entire plate with asphaltum, I used a lithography crayon to draw childlike drawings with my left hand. I then did one color, and followed that up by sanding down the surface to do the same thing but do different drawings. Upon doing that three times, in primary colors, it made an interesting look, one that is wildly different. 

To complete the look, I would chine-collé the print and draw more left handed doodles around some of the prints, and write things out on a few others. Due to the nature of this, the print is a variant edition. The point of the course was to explore different print making techniques so I felt doing such an exploration would be in spirit of the course.

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