Japanese Copperplate Print c.2000, signed and numbered 6/20 in pencil

SIZE IN INCHES: 6.5 x 6.5 inches paper size

COMMENTS: Hikari Hirose is a beloved illustrator of children's books such as Maruma-kun Becomes a Frog. He is best known for his illustrations of aquatic animals, particularly toads and frogs.

COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING is a process for intaglio printmaking and incising a design on a hard surface. The surface of a copper plate (1-3 mm thick) is smoothed before engraving and coated with a thin layer of varnish, chalk, soot or wax. The drawing is done in mirror-image on this layer, then the lines are incised in the metal with a graver or burin. Metal shavings are removed. Surfaces are created with densely juxtaposed lines. The ridges thrown up on both sides of the incised furrows are removed (unlike drypoint etching) with a scraper although they can be left to create particular effects in the print. Before printing takes place, the plate is heated, covered with ink. The warm ink seeps into the finest of depressions and fills the lines and textures of the drawing. The rest of the plate is cleaned off. The copper plate is now pressed with a printing press on to moistened paper which soaks up the ink from the depressions in the plate. The copperplate-engraving technique is very exacting, time-consuming and exhausting for the engraver, who needs a lot of strength for it.

Fine, no flaws