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Creation stages of "Alice's Fantasy" copper plate engraving (completed on August 13, 1982) by John Anthony Miller 

Creation of an copperplate engraving (posted on November 29, 2005)

These preliminary rough engravings have never been shown before. You are the first to see them and also the first to see how I create an engraving on copper plate. Over the years many people have asked me how I do it, and I never have shown any series of progressive works until now. It is sort of like a magician revealing his magic tricks.  I have shown eight progressive working engravings showing the stages I worked though up until the finished engraving, at which time prints will be made off the copper plate with the help of a high pressure etching press. This is a complicated and unforgiving process. It started out, in this example with a blank piece of 1-1/2 inch by 2 inch 16 gauge copperplate which  I cut from a larger piece. The copper was high grade and came from a special source on the east coast. Below are shown enlargements of the work as it progressed over the months. Start from the left and go to the right.

 

Impression #1: Printed on January 1st, 1982. First lines on the blank 16 gauge copper plate. This is traditional old world engraving. Time consuming and one needs lots of patience and a steady hand and eye.  I start out with Alice in the center of the copper plate the tree and Cheshire cat,  and then go from left to right (or rather from left to right, as everything is backwards as I do and prints in reverse on the paper) with light scratches on the copper to mark where the burin (the traditional engraving tool which if you cut it cross ways would be diamond shaped. It is also at an angle and has a handle on the other end)  will soon be cut away from the copper, leaving a "V" shaped groove in the metal. I have already cut away the outline and hair and face of Alice. She will define the piece and act as a center point. Keep in mind the size. The plate is only 2 inches in height! Also the art of engraving is pretty much  unforgiving. Your first line is your last line in 99% of the work. Sometimes one can "burnish" some unwanted lines out, like the light scratches of The Mad Hatter or White Rabbit or egg-shaped Humpty Dumpty or even the small cat in the foreground, as shown above. It is a totally different matter to burnish out small, closely engraved lines as is shown in the semi-completed Alice figure. Also, where lines are burnished out it leaves a hollow indentation in the copper plate which catches ink and prints a dark area. Also, please notice that I am not particular at all about cleaning the plate before I print it. I just want to see how dark the lines are and how it shows up. This will set the stage for the rest of the engraving.  Impression #2: Essentially the same drawing as on the left showing that I beveled the edges of the copper with a file. Important as I do not want ink to gather around the edges of the plate or cut the felt press blanket as the copper plate is passed under the metal roller at high pressure. .. Impression #3: This was printed on March 2nd, 1982. I was doing something that broke into my time line, probably producing orders for Reminiscence.. Here you can see some good examples of line engraving around the figures. Compare the print directly to the left.  Impression #4: This was printed on March 31st, 1982. Again a delay in getting back to the print. Time and other commitments, like making money to pay bills, have always interfered with my production of work, even to this very day. What you see above is something I do sometimes, which is to actually drawing  images on the print to get an idea of some concept I have in mind. Again, the plate (or print) is only 2 inches tall. A lot of the little pencil figures shown here never made it to completion in the finished product.  Impression #5: This was printed on May 18, 1982. As you can surmise by now, the process is time-consuming. Here it is May now. I started this in late 1981 and here it is May 1982..Also the whole process is intense. The further you get into the work, the more excited one gets, yet always remembering that the piece could be totally ruined by one slip of the tool or trying to rush it. A very cerebral process for me. I incorporated my idea of using a banner at the bottom. I like banners. It must be from my past incarnation of some kind of knight.  I also started at this time  to outline a background and a few items in the foreground. Now I am going for spatial things and distances. Before I was going just on an X-Y axis working from left to right and right to left. All this happens on something the size of a postage stamp.. Impression #6: This was printed later (I am not sure when exactly, as I did not mark the date on the print) and it is starting to shape up. Look closely under the tree near the upper center. You can see the original oval of the Humpty Dumpty light lines I did in the very first print, shown at the extreme left. This gives you an idea of how just even the faintest line will show up in the print.  I was also thinking about putting two birds in the print as indicated between the Mad Hatter's hat and Cheshire Cat.  I rejected this idea as I needed  negative space there.  The light lines were burnished out with the burnishing tool. Impression #7: This was printed on August 10th, 1982. I printed this one using a darker ink. This gives you an idea of exactly how I work. The plate is nearing completion. I now have to engrave letters into the banner, all of them backwards of course to make them print like normal letters.  The little mouse under the teapot is holding my "JAM" monogram. Impression #8: This was printed on August 13, 1982. I have now added lettering and finished the front details.  CLICK ON ANY FIGURE IN THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE AN ENLARGEMENT OF THAT AREA. Impression #8.1: This was printed in August 1982. Here I made a print in black ink and not the sepia color that is shown in ones to the left. The whole mood of the piece is changed.