Drypoint Doily Bears

I have decided to use this semester to focus more on sculpture but I still wanted to keep a variety and do the things I know I already enjoy like drawing and printmaking so I decided to do some drypoint bears using my favourite combination of grizzly and doily headgear. I initially drew up some designs pictured below of which three made the cut for the drypoint board. My most successful print is above with the process photos below. I deliberately left swirl marks to get a furry texture and removed streaks for highlights.

I hold a love hate relationship with printmaking as you never really know what you're going to get which is great when you remove it from the press and find a great outcome but so frustrating when you have spent ages preparing for a print and get a disappointment. I first tried some yellow prints which came out patchy and faded so I swapped it up for a red/blue blend that works much better. I will bear it in mind that darker colours seem to work better for me in future.

In a tutorial Virginia pointed out that to next improve my prints I should think about the composition and framing more. Drypoint naturally creates an imprinted border that I like so she suggested I fill the board with my image to get a better composition so I'm going to attempt that in my next drypoints of bears again and possibly sharks.