This is a copper-plate intaglio print I made for a printmaking class. It's the first and only intaglio I've ever done, and only the second print I've ever made. It depicts  pieball's Pathfinder 2e characters Bloom and Humblebee, as well as my D&D character and her familiar, Blaitthe and Opal. All of these have characters are fey or otherwise related to fairies, and my goal was to play with the trickery and mischief of fairies. The setting is meant to appear like a never-ending apple orchard. I emphasized divisions and odd perspectives to play with the ways in which such a setting doesn't necessarily conform to our expectations of reality.

Intaglio was a very difficult process for me. Carving the copper proved quite difficult for me. I felt my limited artistic experience prevented me from capturing the details I really wanted to, especially in comparison to my classmates. There were also a number of technical issues with the plate and printing process that made this quite trying for me; that's why this print is a 1 of 1. I was at first very unhappy with the result, but I think now that I may have been a bit hard on it. I still obviously see things I could have improved, but I also see ambitious ideas and things that helped me grow as an artist. For example, this piece inspired me to lean into my status as an amateur artist for my later prints. This is especially clear with my silkscreen Off-Topic, which is focused on the kind of MS Paint sparkledog art and the cultural reaction to it.

I write all that not as some sort of "apology" for "bad art", but to emphasize how this print changed how I make art, and how that in turn changed my relationship to the print. I find it quite interesting, and I hope you do too :)