Old Town Summer Roofs, Hastings
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Artist: Colin Bailey
Views: 103
Oil on paper (14" x 21")
Summer sunshine washes across the roofs of the Old town in Hastings. St Clements church at the foot of the West Hill dominates the scene. In the bottom right is Courthouse street leading up to the Jenny Lind and the High Street.
Summer sunshine washes across the roofs of the Old town in Hastings. St Clements church at the foot of the West Hill dominates the scene. In the bottom right is Courthouse street leading up to the Jenny Lind and the High Street.
I used to have a spreadsheet which I am currently trying to resurrect which worked out the exact timings for an adjustable number of tones. I will make it available eventually! (I am presently trying to convert it from my old Psion 3a to Excel.... aaargh!!)
In the meantime here is the timing I generally use. In principal it adopts the same mathematical progression as camera shutter speeds or f stops.
SOFT GROUND stages
1 Initial sketch with simple tones
SOFT GROUND, Dutch Mordant on Copper
30 minutes and remove ground
2 Secondary drawing with shadows and more detailed mid tones :
SOFT GROUND, Dutch Mordant on Copper
1 hour and remove ground
Apply coating of hard ground, smoke and do not remove between bites.
HARD GROUND Stages
Dutch Mordant on Copper working from darkest black downwards:
1 First Bite Black - 2 Hr (Total 4 Hr)
2 Then: Darker shadows - 1 hr (Total 2 Hr)
3 Shadows - 30 min (Total 1 Hr)
4 Mid - 15 min (Total 30 min)
5 Light - 8 min (Total 15 min)
6 Light 4 min (Total 8 min)
7 Lightest 4 min (Total 4 min)
8 White
Giving a total of 8 tones including White with a total of 4 Hours biting time
Each tone is double/half the time of the next
Hatching can be "interlaced" to create intermediate tones
Whilst the initial bite and lightest bites may seem extremely separated, remember that as you complete each successive tone, more and more of the plate is exposed, effectively accelerating the action of the acid.
I always think of acid as working like a group of hungry kids being let loose on an empty sweet shop; swarming around the brightest and stickiest sweets available and devouring them ravenously until too full to move!