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Hard ground and aquatint on copper plate, 17 x 10.5

I completed most of the needling on this plate in 2024, but didn’t get a chance to do the aquatint until a couple of months ago when I had access to a larger hotplate.

I hate to raise the Sunk Cost Fallacy like some tiresome online debate nerd, but in this case, it’s apt. I got to a point with this etching where I really was not invested in it, but I had already spent so much time that it seemed wasteful not to complete it. For the most part, I don’t care for this etching. It has some interesting passages (I like the skeletons, for example), but overall it’s a bit lifeless, desiccated. It certainly doesn’t have the energy of the drawing that inspired it…

This drawing is far superior, I think mostly because it arose spontaneously, in the moment, with no planning. This question of how to be both spontaneous and intentional is always the sticking point, and it’s something a lot of artists struggle with. For the most part, I’ve settled on keeping to the more spontaneous side of the equation, which results in a lot of wasted time and effort, of course, but the alternative is work that is charmless and frankly boring for me to produce. This is why I’ve given up any idea of being an illustrator or working on commission; work I’ve done “professionally” is often the worst stuff I’ve made and is painful for me to look at. But I haven’t really resolved the issue. There are still stories or ideas I would like to illustrate, and having to deal with some element of planning and sketching is inevitable, especially working in etching, where materials are so expensive and the process so time consuming,

Here’s a sketchbook page with some more thoughts on this…

I recently came across this passage in a collection of William Steig’s work. Of course, one doesn’t get a sense that Steig struggled with this issue at all when viewing his work, but it’s good to see that even he did……

Anyway, if you like my rawer drawings, please check out my book Serving Suggestion. It collects over 100 sketchbook drawings completed between 2017 and 2022, and is available here for only $15 a copy.

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