Shōmen-suburi - a series of dry point etches

This is my first post here, and it has been a while since I actually wrote about my work so I thought it would be nice to start by talking a little about a series of prints that I started this week.

(For context sake) I practiced Kendo for some years and although not practicing it at the moment, it is something that I really am passionate about.
I do practice a lot in my mind - which laughable as may sound, is actually useful - and most of that practice is about visualizing the cuts, or more specifically, the mechanical gesture of cutting: the forward motion of the body as the arms perform a subtle stretch, bend and twist.

A good part of Kendo practice is about suburi - 'naked swings' - i.e. striking an invisible opponent in a repetitive fashion; there are different types of suburi, but a common practice always includes a lot of Shōmen-suburi (directed to the head) as it is one of the most common hitting spots.

Recently I decided that it would be interesting to try and capture a Men (strike to the head) in a series of dry point etches ( I've just started doing this technique recently but I've really fallen in love with it).

For the dry points, I've been starting from brushstrokes made with watercolour or sumi-e ink and from there I choose some, that I then trace and proceed to etch with an etching needle. In this particular case, I did a few dozens and selected four to start with of which I could only successfully print three - because its just challenging all the inking, cleaning and getting the press just right while maintaining your paper wet, but not shiny :)

Since when I was in art school that I ponder on both the limits of what is drawing or painting and the issues concerning originality and copy, and I guess its because of it that I became fascinated with engraving techniques, which allowed me to further delve into these subtle realms.

I'm particularly happy with the results so far, and I know I did my best to replicate that swift cutting movement with ink; If my brush strokes reminded me of the need of doing more suburi, the monotonous etching of the fine parallel lines provided an adequate evocation of the rigorous discipline needed to pursue Beauty.

As a compliment to this series, I've also made a unique NFT with 24 animated strokes that I digitized and animated as a GIF - it's on opensea.io, check it out and place a bid if you love it.

(series of 8 variations with a numbered ed. of 6 for each, printed on Fabriano Rosaspina with Charbonnel Black Luxe C)