“Passions Unmask”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

During my current removal I found a lot of really old stuff and I decided to post some of it. Some of the things I’ve found stored in a closet are several original zinc plates of the etching engravings and several test copies of the engravings. Don’t ask me why but I don’t keep any issue of the original series of any of the engravings that I produced between 1987 and 1990, I just keep non-numbered test copies of them, and some of them are not really clean ones.

I started learning etching engraving in 1987 at the workshop of artist Manolo Ayllón in Madrid, where I produced these set of eight engravings using different techniques. At the time, I was impressed by the engraving works of Albert Durero, Francisco de Goya, Henry Holiday, John Tenniel and Patrick Woodroffe, so I decided that learning this technique would be very interesting to expand my illustration skills.

The first engraving I did, “Passions Unmask”, was using the technique of etching, consisting of covering the plate with an acid-resistant material and then drawing on it with an etching needle in order to create an intaglio image so the exposed metal is eaten away in an acid bath.

I have a dear memory of the “engraving days”, waiting my turn in the workshop to put my plates on acid or to use the printer and learning from the chats with other artists. It was a pretty esoteric work where I was just trying to reproduce some of the line styles that I had seen in old engravings and illustrations.

“Shipwreck”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

With my second work “Shipwreck”, I used just the same technique and I remember being very much influenced by Henry Holiday’s illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”. I remember everyone else in the workshop was looking at me weird because they mostly were into abstract art and I was there trying to imitate the wood engraving techniques from the 18th century. They were probably right because I was not really using the right technique for it.

“Ultramar”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

For the engraving called “Ultramar”, I decided to start experimenting with new techniques. Whereas I was influenced by the baroque engravings and was still trying to imitate the wood engraving, I decided to use the technique of aquatint, which I knew from Goya’s works. This technique was very popular at the workshop because it gives you the freedom of painting directly on the plate with acid and the textures result is always beautiful and expressive.

This engraving was part of a series of works inspired by the music of the progressive rock band Ty-Jir, which I was involved with at the time. It was part of an exhibition of paintings, engravings and sculpture held during a concert of the band in Madrid’s IFEMA. The whole thing was pretty chaotic and that was when I started thinking art and live rock music shouldn’t go together… Two of my paintings dropped and the glasses broke and a mechanical sculpture which consisted of a painted wooden box with an eye that spun round was vandalized. It was a pretty fun evening though. My band was supporting the progressive rock band Galadriel, which were friends and shared rehearsal rooms with us. The whole thing was organized by our friend Angel Romero who ran the label Mind Child that had released our music. I was supposed to set a stage design with a huge curtain of mirror pieces and everything went wrong in the last minute because the mirrors were glued to nylon strings with silicon and as soon as we hung the whole thing the mirrors would slide down the strings like raindrops on a window. Pretty funny!

“Yo Recuerdo”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

This other illustration entitled “Yo Recuerdo” -I Remember- was also part of the same exhibition, inspired in a song by Ty-Jir. Sadly, I don’t keep any engraving of it anymore. I gave a numbered copy of it to each member of the band but I’m afraid none of them kept it throughout the years. So I can only show a really poor copy of a photocopy that was part of the original booklet that was distributed to the audience in the concert. If I can get a better copy in the future I will post it.

This illustration was completely related with the band Ty-Jir since it was a portrait of us, sinking in the middle of the ocean, lost and astray, looking for a direction and everyone looking towards a different place. The characters who appear in the picture are left to right: Jesús Acosta (bass, vocals), Francisco Valdivia (vocals), Marco Vieira (flute), Pablo Chabarri (guitar), and myself (a weird mixture between artist, lyricist, producer and errand boy). The building in the background is the infamous Crystal Palace in Madrid’s Parque del Retiro, which was a place where we used to meet at the time.

“Metamorphosis of the Kotanoise”, Koldo Barroso, 1988.

On the next engraving “Metamorphosis of the Kotanoise”, there was a big change in the style and techniques I used. It was mostly influenced by Tantric Indian art and other symbolisms. This engraving is made of three different plates where I combined the techniques of aquatint and etching. The illustration represents the backwards evolution of an alter ego in three steps were different elements get combined. This combination attends to a mathematical operation of three different symbols -the elephant, the armadillo, the snail- which is detailed in the right plate of the engraving. During the time I did this engraving I had started selling copies of my engravings in craftsmanship markets in Madrid and I remember this particular piece sold pretty well.

“Moonchild”, Koldo Barroso, 1988.

This engraving entitled “Moonchild” was inspired by King Crimson’s song and the pre-raphaelite art. It is the most complex and elaborate engraving I ever did. It uses several techniques including etching, aquatint, casting, stamping, and graphic pencil and it consists in three different plates: one for the pencil drawing, one for the cast of the teardrops and one for the framing and the colors. I spent months working on this engraving and I only got one single copy of it, which I gave as a gift to a friend of mine. I had a hell of a time trying to make the three plates fit and I remember that I almost ruined one of the expensive printing blankets during the process and got a lecture from the teacher. Today, I only keep one final test copy of this engraving.

“The Tear”, Koldo Barroso, 1989.

For the next illustration “The Tear” I used a similar combination of techniques, but I didn’t get so complicated this time. All of the piece is in just one plate and the background cast was made of a special resin material. The figure of the lady also has a volume cast, as you may appreciate in the picture. After this illustration I quit the workshop for a hiatus and only got back for a couple of Christmas cards. These cards I’ve shown before in a former post about Christmas Greeting Cards. The first one was produced in 1989 and I used the technique of graphic pen. The second one, produced in 1990, I remember it wasn’t printed in the workshop but in the School of Arts of Madrid with the help of my friend David Ariza. I used etching, resins for the textures, and aquatint for the tail of the star.

Christmas card, Koldo Barroso, 1989.

Christmas card, Koldo Barroso, 1990.

I have very good memories from the engraving days. I have always compared engraving with cooking, in art is the most similar thing I’ve experienced because the tools that you use and the process itself looks very much like it. Like counting out the seconds to get the plate out from acid because if you leave it fro too long you spoil it, just like making white sauce. I also have a dear memory of talking to other artists in the workshop, learning from them, while waiting to use the press or the acid.

On the other hand, engraving is not something really practical or easy to do at home, you need lots of tools, room, a very expensive and heavy press, and it’s pretty messy in general. But if you have the opportunity to join a workshop it really worths the experience. For me, it was a beautiful experience that obligated me to be methodical, disciplined, and clean in my work, which I didn’t before. And in terms of illustration, it opened up my perspective in terms of line, compossition and contrast, which was very useful to me.

Although today I don’t keep good original copies of most of these engravings, I still keep the original plates of all of them -I believe- so there is always a possibility that one day I’ll get them printed again but not any time soon.