DIY Negatives: Learning by Doing

Teaching art, while dissolving the "mystique" of my own work's process, reinforces my practice with new learning and expands my technique with new unknowns. Since I am to some extent a self-taught practitioner, the thrill of charting new ground is familiar territory.

Twice I have taught my "scratch neg technique" and both times I preface the class by emphasizing the experimental nature of DIY negatives. It is a multi-factored process, and calibrating the variables can be challenging. But out of this chaos, delightful discoveries are born. Here are a few lessons I learned collaboratively (and spontaneously) with my students while leading a tutorial on scratch negatives:

• Try Rapidograph Ink! I had been using almost exclusively Dr. Ph. Martin's Highcarb Waterproof India Ink, but the Rapidograph formula has some attractive properties. Its surface is softer and yields more readily. For this reason, it works better if your mark-making employs sand paper or a pencil, for example.
• Let it be! When ink is "too thin" it creates an interesting artifact. I had generally avoided using negatives prepared with thin ink because the light seeps through and compromises the image. However, the "compromised" result is an interesting cloudy pattern that resembles spit bite. (For examples of intaglio using spit bite, click here and here.
• Stop down! It's amazing how decreasing exposure time and wash-out time can improve the fidelity of your image. Using timing that is no more than necessary saves your plate from errant exposure and the disintegration of fine lines. We got away (and found success) with 1-minute exposures and 3-minute wash-outs.

Thanks to my students! Keep up the great work!
Abbie