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