Getting creative with collagraphs

lindywhitton

April 29

I've just run a 2 day workshop for a local art group and it was a real buzz to share my enthusiasm and techniques with the group of inquisitive and creative artists who joined me to explore this exciting medium. I took them through the various stages of designing, preparing, inking, wiping and printing a plate.

I love collagraph printing for so many reasons. It has such a rich diversity of styles, uses very humble and easily acessible materials to create plates and the big reveal after pulling the first print from a new plate is almost always surprising in some aspect.

It's not always exactly as you imagine it will be...especially when it's your first ever collagraph plate!

Learning to predict how a plate will print comes with experience using different materials and practising inking and wiping techniques.

Unexpected results can sometimes be really interesting so every print is an opportunity to learn and explore.

We discussed different techniques for making plates and over the two days each student made 3 plates combining cutting lines, peeling back the surface and gluing on material in different ways. I always encourage students to use their own personal subject interests to guide their work so there was a wide range of plates from botanical to abstract to landscape to birds.

I shared how plates don't need to be complicated and sometimes simple found materials grouped in an intentional way can result in a very pleasing print.

Here five feathers I picked up on a morning walk made an interesting composition when I laid them on a plate so I glued them down, sealed the plate and pulled my first proof an hour later.

One of the best ways to test different materials is to make a sample plate and this is one where a student used an abstract design focussing on varying textured circles which gave her an understanding of how each material would print tonally and texturally.

It was interesting to see how much everyone learned as we discussed the first proof print from their plates. Building on that learning they then reinked the plate and wiped in a different way to address the areas they wanted to improve.

Here Lynne made a beautiful plate but too much ink was trapped in the trees because they were made from some dry flower heads and then the ink squished out in a blobby mess under the trees...next time she carefully pressed down on the trees to release excess ink and wiped carefully behind the trees. She also added more contrasting ink on the top of the trees after wiping the plate.

One of the exciting things about collagraph printing is how different prints from the same plate can look depending on the colours chosen for inking and how the ink is wiped from the plate.

Some students focussed on one plate and pulled a series of prints experimenting with colours and wiping which is a great way to learn and consolidate knowledge.

We also looked at using individual small plates to create different groupings for prints. These rock prints were all made using a group of small plates inked in different colours and arranged in different formats.