Etching: Hobbiton – preparation

In 2014 I toured New Zealand and visited Hobbiton, the village created for the movie The Hobbit.  I, personally, thought the movie was only average but I love the scenery and special effects.

Hobbiton is a marvellous place and would have been much improved if it hadn’t been pouring with rain most of the time as I schlepped through ankle-deep mud – no paving there of course!  However, I thoroughly enjoyed the day and took a wealth of photos.

I’ve translated several scenes into drawings and chosen two to print as solar plate etchings.

My initial drawings were quite faint so stage 1 was to photocopy them darker so more of the finer parts would be more obvious for etching.  These drawings were then transferred to acetate, and made darker again.

Look terrible, don’t they?  But I need strong tonal differences so the etchings will have some depth to them as each tone should etch at a different rate, if all goes to plan.

The acetate images were then transferred to a solar plate, which is currently curing for the week until I trim it and print on Friday.

My sense is that some of the finer background drawing may have been lost but I’ll find out when I print them.

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