I found a good royalty-free image of a frog and decided to make it into a copper portrait. I had a 6×8″ blank ready to go, so began with designing the stencil.
This frog has many tiny bits of detail, which I decided to try and keep in the stencil. I do not intend on reproducing every little detail at this scale, but the option to spend more time weeding for the extra detail is there. If the stencil were to end up too full of holes to work with, I would just toss it and spend time simplifying the design in software.
The stencil turned out fine and didn’t fall apart, so I transferred it to the copper surface. I weed the black colour out of the stencil and mask the rest of the plate to be ready for paint. I apply 2 coats and let it dry.
With the black paint cured, I next weed for the shaded colour. I focus on the biggest parts of the shadow, then get a few more details in some key areas before deciding to move on with chemical treatment and reaction in the chamber. I could spend more time picking away at all the tiny bits, but it’s not necessary at this scale
After the plate reacted I was happy to see a bit of green in the shadows, so I removed it, rinsed it, applied clear coat, and let dry. I peel away the background next and react it. After the background came out so blue, I decide to go with bare copper for the main colour of the frog. I apply clear coat to protect the background and let it cure, then weed out the main colour and clear coat again.
There are just a few small spots left, like the eye, and a few other small details. I expose those spots, apply chemicals, and put the plate in the chamber. I keep checking on it to monitor the reaction and ensure that the colours do not go too dark. Once it’s done, I manually add a little neutralizing chemical around the pupil, like a paint brush, to brighten-up the eye. One final rinse, dry, and clear coat application finishes the frog image.
I think the frog turned out great, and despite a little frustration, the high level of detail was better than not having it. I will probably look at other, simpler frog designs for any future plates at this size, but will probably go back to this one at larger scales.