Six Etchings of Heads was Auerbach's first series of portrait etchings. The sitters are his wife, Julia Auerbach and cousin, Gerda Boehm, and his friends Joe Tilson, R.B. Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Lucian Freud. In each plate Auerbach used a different approach, suggesting, perhaps, the different personalities he was depicting.

Auerbach’s first etching was produced when he visited Joe Tilson in 1980. He completed sketches, drew the image onto the copper plate, then Tilson bit the plate in acid and his son Jake printed it. After preparatory sketches, he drew on the plates using a dart, keeping to the principle of using simple convenient materials.

Collections of Auerbach’s prints and sketches are held in public collections including The National Gallery, London; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Examples of Auerbach’s body of work across several mediums are also held in The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The National Portrait Gallery, London; The British Museum, London; and the Tate, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Ben Uri Gallery & Museum, London.