Collagraph Workshop Part 2

The second Saturday of my workshop

at Stumptown Art Studio http://www.stumptownartstudio.org/

will cover printing the collagraph plate.

Here we have my finished plate.

To get ready for printing;

I first soak my paper to soften it up,
make a template for positioning plate and paper,and get the press set up with blankets
Next, I get my ink out
(we'll have black, blue and brown available)...


and start spreading it on to the plate -

a very small amount is needed.

Here the plate is covered with ink.

The rubber spatula makes it easier to spread ink

in to all the cracks and crevices of the plate.

Now, I begin to wipe the plate.

I start by scraping the top layer of ink from the plate

with a piece of mat board. This removes most of the excess ink.

Next, using a balled up piece of tarlatan,
I wipe the plate. The surface ink gets picked up in the weave of the tartlatan

and you end up with a wiped plate ready for the press.

Be sure to wipe edges of plate as lumps of ink can accumulate

and cause blotches in the print.

Using my template, I place the plate on to the press bed.

Now, using a bent playing card to keep my inky fingers from

leaving finger maks all over my paper,

I remove the soaked paper and let it drip...

...and then I blot the paper dry.

Once again using my template, I place my paper over the plate.

I roll down the press blankets and run everything through

the press rollers, mashing everything together.

After passing through the press,

you can see the embossing of the plate

on the back side of the paper.

Peal the the paper back from the plate

and, voila!

A Collagraph Print

These inks take a good deal of time to dry

so I like to give the print a week or so before

handling or framing. After that I've

an archival print that should last well beyond

my great grandchildren's lifetime.

Collagraph Workshop Part 1

I'm teaching a Collagraph workshop at the Stumptown Art Studio

(http://www.stumptownartstudio.org/)

on Saturday August 16th and 23rd

Here's pretty much what we'll be doing that first Sat.

CREATING A COLLAGRAPH PLATE

Here's the most important thing to remember:

Keep It Thin!

The other thing thing that is important to remember is

all of the values in your print will come from the textures

on the plate - the rougher the surface the darker value

and the smoother the surface the lighter the value.

Basically, I create my plates from trash.

I collect trash with interesting textures and

stash it in these bins. So I rummage

through them and come up with...

1. Cardboard - base for plate

2. Old sand paper - for some nice dark values

3. Letter "G" stencil - for shape

(prints will be REVERSE from plate-

for lettering to appear correctly on print

it must be backwards on plate)

4. A self-portrait on butcher paper - for fun

Next I adhere everything together with an acrylic gel medium

(you could just use white glue for this part).

I like using plastic wrap to really mash everything down together

without getting medium all over my hands

as shown in these three pictures:

Self Portrait Cut Out
Next I cut out the plate...
and seal the edges.
Next I use the gel medium establish some lighter values.

Then using some fun tools to poke my plate,
I create values with the stippling.
Notice the texture in the these photos:



After sealing everything with a very thinned down gel medium wash,

I create my lightest value by laying platic wrap over wet gel meduim

and letting it dry totally before removing wrap.

This is basically how I arrive at a collagraph plate.

COMING SOON

Collagraph Workshop Part 2

Printing the Plate