Le Chat Noir Limited Etching by Gary Baseman

You never know what you’re going to get when you follow a twitter link from @GaryBaseman. Usually, it’s a rewarding twitpic of Blackie the cat or Toby, his traveling companion. In this case, it was a fetching etching entitled, Le Chat Noir. Naturally, I made an immediate inquiry, and I got a quick, detail-packed reply:

• Soft ground, hard ground, aquatint and burnishing techniques were used.
• Charbonnel and Daniel Smith inks were mixed to get a special formula.
• Etched copper plates were steel faced before editioning.
• Plate was handwiped by the printer.

All of that is a bit over my head, but it sure sounds super sexy. I’d love to see one in person, as most of the prints I see these days are digital. Le Chat Noir is Baseman‘s first time experimenting with this labor-intensive, old kind of printmaking. For pre-Comic-Con timing, it’s a bit spendy for me at $800 (+$10 domestic shipping). But the edition is limited to 27 prints, and the studio only has a handful remaining. If you have the funds, I direct my jealousy in your direction. Payment can be made through PayPal to basemanart [at] earthlink [dot] net.