2019 | Panos Pristouris

TECHNIQUE:

Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking method that involves scratching an image into a plate with a pointed tool. These lines create a burr that holds ink, meaning that the print reveals the drawing. Intaglio printmaking is the opposite of relief printmaking as it is the sunken areas of the plate that print rather than the raised areas, as it happens with Xylography.

Drypoint is an easy technique to familiarize with and is a great method if you would like to take your drawings into print. It’s easier than etching as it requires less specialist equipment and no chemicals or acids. In general, intaglio printmaking plates can be made in copper, zinc or plastic (Thin-elastic and thick plexiglass).

At the following pages you will find three different categories of artworks, created the 3 last years, based on the way that they have been made. The basic technique is that of Drypoint on plexiglass.

2019

A series of artworks that formed the body of the dissertation and at the same time of the first solo exhibition of the artist at the School of Fine Arts. Large-scale engraving prints coherent in composition and with a theme that remains faithful to the representation of the natural environment. The color palette includes earth tones and dark shades.

Starting from the production of the designs and reaching up to the final stage of printing, each individual process makes its perfection present. Natural drawings, design and engraving tests, colors created exclusively for the specific designs, combination of woodcut and dry engraving techniques.

Each engraving narrates its own story and at the same time is an emotional portrait of the artist. The viewer is free to wander between the detail of the design and the illusion created by the combination of forms. The gesture attributed to the artwork catches his attention and transfers him to his own “imaginary reality”.