Prints inspired by Wright
Off-site Workshop
Fri 18th September 2026
10.30am – 1.30pm
Places available
Suitable for beginners
Book your place
£30.00
How to book
To book this course, please select the date and pricing option that is most suitable for you and continue your order through to checkout. Payment can be made via Card or PayPal. We will email you to confirm your booking.
If you would like to book a tailored course, please contact us to confirm your selected date(s) before booking.
If you are booking on behalf of one or more persons, please include all attendees names in the Order Notes section at checkout.
Create your own prints inspired by Joseph Wright with us at Derby’s Museum of Making.
Discover more about printing techniques as you will get the opportunity to watch a fascinating Mezzotint demonstration and have a go at a dry point printmaking activity.
What is Mezzotint?
Mezzotint is an intaglio technique that produces monochromatic, tonal-based prints. First created in 1642 by Ludwig von Siegen, Mezzotint was the first printing process to create half-tones without lines or dot-based hatching/stippling.
The process requires a copper plate to be ‘roughened’ with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a ‘rocker’. The image is then scraped or burnished on this surface to produce lighter tones on areas of the plate.
The finished print can often portray striking portrayals of light, alongside deep, velvet blacks, that can often create atmospheric, contemplative and dramatic prints.
Due to the time needed to produce the plate and the subsequent time needed to scrape/burnish the image into the plate, the process itself can take weeks and months to produce an effective image.
A demonstration will be held by printmaker Steven Allen, printing an already completed Mezzotint plate, showing tools used, the plate making process, translation of artwork to the plate, the wiping techniques used and then the printing of the plate.
What is Drypoint?
Drypoint is a printmaking technique that creates a line-based image by using sharp tools to scratch into the surface of a perspex plate. The style of this method lends itself well to loose drawing and expressive, fluid mark making.
Often confused with the process of etching, Drypoint is in itself an individual, standalone technique. It consists of drawing, or ‘engraving’, fairly deeply into the plate using specialist tools in order to create an image.
Unlike etching there is no use of resists or mordants to bite the plate, making drypoint a fairly simple way to create a plate for printing multiple prints.
During this workshop, you will learn how to create marks needed to print your image, inking up and wiping the plate, ready for printing – and then finally print your image on specialist printmaking papers.
Booking essential, suitable for ages 12+.
Pricing Options
Regular
Our regular rate is applicable if you are currently in full or part time employment.
Concessionary / Student
Our concessionary rate is applicable if you are aged 60 years or older, aged 13 years or younger, and/or in receipt of any state benefits. If you are aged 13+ years, and in full-time education or currently studying towards an undergraduate or post-graduate degree.
GD Member
Members of the studio receive a 10% discount on all of our courses. Become a member?
How to prepare
All materials and notes are included in the price of this workshop. No previous experience of printmaking is required unless noted in the course details. Young printmakers are encouraged, aged 13+.
For details about what to prepare before for your course begins, please read through our How to Prepare page.
Cancellations
Green Door requires 5 working days notice of cancellation of a booked course/workshop. Any advance payment made in excess of the non-refundable deposit (50% of the course price) will be returned unless you are able to make arrangements with Green Door Printmaking Studio to reschedule your course booking.
As a courtesy it is always preferable to notify us of your cancellation even if it falls within the cancellation notice period.
Green Door reserves the right to postpone any course bookings until future notice. We will always keep you informed should any changes to your course booking arise.