'getting unhooked' etching.
DESCRIPTIONAn etching printed with a blue ink and hand-coloured detail, showing the unhooking of a small fish. Printed on thick Somerset acid free paper.
DETAILStitled: getting unhooked
etching from a copper plate.
the image is 38 x 24 cm.
this print is number 4 in an edition of 15.
printed on Somerset acid free paper.
TRIVIABack in 2009 I illustrated a picture-book by Stefan Casta. It was set underwater in a lake and I was keen for it to have as little lines as possible defining the images. I wanted it to be wishy-washy. Except for one image. This one. It’s the one time in the story when the protagonist gets pulled out of the water. (But because she is too small she gets put back in again.) As a contrast I wanted this spread to have solid etched lines and deeply aquatinted shadows.
It’s easy enough to draw a left hand - you just look at your left and draw with your right. But for this image I needed a pair of hands holding the little fish. And the bigger the better. I asked my girlfriend’s dad Bill to model his chunky hands.