Tiger Engraving finished

I finished this late Friday night last week. Well, technically early Saturday morning. ;-) This is my first attempt at a technique called bulino, which is named for the particular type of tool that's used. This was all done by hand (which nearly killed my hand!).

On the bright side, it looks like a tiger, so that's good! Definitely a good start but there's a LOT of room for improvement, so it's very much a learning process. I over-polished the piece, it should not be so shiny. Blame my art background for that one. ;-) In the world of printmaking, plate tone (the ink that would catch on a non-polished plate and therefore print as a light gray) is a BAD thing. In engraving, it's apparently okay. Live and learn. I was also far too heavy-handed with this and need to make smaller markings. Looking at other bulino engravings this weekend in Reno was really helpful. AND, I did not manage to actually remove all the metal I wanted to remove, much of it was just displaced in the form of a raised burr, which is very bad. I have ordered some sharpening equipment and I think that'll be a big help, I really struggled with sharpening the tool by hand and think I messed up the geometry pretty badly which is why I was not able to properly cut the metal.

But all in all a good start and it'll only get better from here! :-)

Photographed through the microscope (not inked):


Photographed on my table (not inked):

This piece is not for sale.