.. HAMANISHI Katsunori's "My Techniques" ..  English  日本語

Let me introduce a part of my techniques based on my technical transfer from original mezzotint (half tone) works to colored mezzotints, and applying metal leafs.

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    My Color Copperplate Engraving

 

 

When I was still a student, my teacher, who was not only my art advisor but a oil-painting artist as well, tried printmaking (lithograph).  His original plan was to use about three plates and finish by using five to seven colors, taking into consideration the overlaying of hues.  However, perhaps due to the nature of an artist who paints in oil, he felt the colors lacked depth compared to the original image he had in mind and he produced plates afresh a dozen or so more times.  When he laid down his brush (lithograph pencil),  the colors certainly had increased in their depth, but their brilliance had decreased by just as much (At least that is how I felt).

This experience became my inspiration.  In my own color copperplate engraving, I try to reduce the number of plates and to make the most of the brilliance innate in colors, or the power of colors maximize.  Thus, for a plate on which colors are laid, I pull the print in relief style even though it is an intaglio, except for special cases.  In the case of intaglio printing, unless the plate is coated, colors either become dull, or, for some types of color their tones change.  This is due to the friction created between the copperplate and the cheesecloth when removing ink from the plate.  There is nothing novel in printing color plates in relief style but, for me, this is a desperate way of minimizing the negative effects of copperplate engraving.

 

 



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