"Sandhill Crane (With East Palatka Holly)"

This is one of the final states of "Sandhill Crane", but the last one before I was able to buff out most of the blotchy plate tone on the copper with fine steel wool. I have no idea where the blotchiness came from; it appeared on the plate after I etched it. I won't allow any of my plates to contact the plastic in the padded envelopes I use to store them now; usually I wrap them in newsprint first to store. I used this last artist proof to experiment with a watercolor tinting and this is how it came out.

"Sandhill" is printing nice and clean now; my best one went up to the annual Roycroft Artisan At Large jury up in NY and the other one (nearly indistinguishable) is going into a frame for the Tarpon Springs art show next week, as is this one.

6"x9"; Graphic Chemical bone-black ink on white Rives B.F.K.