Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton (1912-2011), one of the most influential British artist of the 20th century, is widely regarded as a founding figure of  pop art. He has had a long career as a print maker. He used different method of print making, such as etching, aquatint, dry point, mezzotint. I only know etching, had a look through his work of different method of print making. I found it is very interesting. Some of them just used very simply lines to define a picture. Some of them use marks and has soft edges.

This is his self portrait, created in 1951, used etching and aquatint together. It is so simple, just a few lines and a few marks, created a great image. We did self portrait last week using etching. I did 4 plates and fairly happy with the final result. Last year, I could not really understand how it work and could not get a good image. Now I think I understand it a bit better and started to like it. 

I really like this one, done is 1983, media is etching, engraving and aquatint on paper.The tone worked really well, not very much, left the image very clean and tidy. From the simple line and tone, we can see the light, we can the quality of his suit, we can see the small details such as the chain which go through his waistcoat, the ring on his left hand, the small buttons and even the handkerchief in his pocket.  It is just so perfect. Only thing I don't quite understand is his left leg, everywhere is so perfect,, makes the left let feels quite funny.