๐—–๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ต ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด

๐—–๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ต ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด

print

Collagraph is a process of a printing plate that has an abundance of different textures to create a print. It was first seen in 1955 when Glen alps used it, the word โ€˜collagraphโ€™ comes from a Greek word and in simple terms means to glue/ graph (to draw). Near to anything can be used, due to this being a relief printing method the only setback is the material being glue on has to have a low relife (this is when the relief patern is shallow,for example string, a leaf or mount board when cut).

a vidoe i found explaining how to make collagraphs

While researching I discovered this video on YouTube presenting a simple homemade collagraph. Due to COVID I really like this technique as itโ€™s simple to do from home. But this is also interesting as I could involved a lot of natural resources to create my prints. The women shows how you can create simple patterns with this method and can be used for the main print or as a background.


When desinging my relife print, i decided to develop a drawing i did last year for print (made in febuary 2021). I wanted to manipulate the blossom and snake skull to keep to the theme of beauty and ugliness, the skull would represent ugliness and the blossom is beauty (i fine skulls and bones beautifull but in this project im using them in a different light).

I decided to keep it simple as this was my first time experimenting within collagraph printing, i drew out the flowers and then added the snake skull behind. This shows the concept of when looking at anyhting weather its the world, a person or a relationship you might see the beauty but if you look harder there is always some kind of ugliness with in it.

On the left side is the plate I made. I found it challenging to Get my head around what textures are needed to hold enough ink in order to a have different gradients of black at first. Once I grasped an understanding I really enjoyed making this plate. Once the plate is ready and all glue (if used) is dry then you can apply a layer of varnish, for this I used shellac. Shellac is a substance that make the plate in a sense more water proof helping It to stay strong and give a better print due to being able to wipe ink off.

The varnish is applided in a room with an air vacuum and the left to dry. Next i appiled an oil-based black ink the used some scrim to take off all the extra ink before printing.
When printing you place some news print on the etching press then place the plate facing upwards… on top of the plate lay on some dampened cartage paper and the some more news print.

Mount boardJust the normal mount board surface creates a mid-tone grey (e.g the outside grey)
cuts (with a stanley knife)This creates black lines (e.g the lines inside the flowers)
first layer taken off the mount boardThis creates a much darker tone…. Basically black (e.g around the skull and flowers)
Glue / any shiney surface This creates highlights (e.g highlights on tge skull and flowers)
How the ink reacts to different textures (there are loads more materials you can use)

I found this process intresting, I want to develop this technique further. Therefore I am going to create a piece on a much bigger scale, my first collagraph was smaller than A5, i am now going to design an A1 collagraph. I also want to take it one step further and print onto the print that comes out from the collagraph.

๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ‘๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ธ’

๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ‘๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ธ’

print

When examining the brief, I found the title of the project, point of view, interesting. As a result of there being many outcomes. I know the first technique we are being taught is collagraphs. To keep starting this project simple, I will develop a design from last years project for the first technique.I wish to develop an deep understanding for how society preserves beauty and ugliness within others.My work will investigate this part of human life due to its massive impact to how humans work within communities, but also how it helps or hinders us to develop relationships with each other.

My practice is going to push the understanding . this is a massive part of human life but we never think about it and when we do we always claim we don’t judge people. when this I not true, everyone judges people it is how we determine if someone is a good person or if we want to stay away from them. below is some examples of last years works that i am doing to develop for the beginning of this years project.

I have looked online for some more inspiration for this project just within animals bones for now, this is mainly for inspiration on what I can make for my collagraph.ย  I have a fascinationย  with narrative to express an art piece, as i feel it helps the art piece come alive but also helps the work connect to the viewer.ย 

Below are illustrations I found and Want to take some inspiration from. The key approach I wish to take from these works is create detail within a simple way. This is how I need to execute my collagraphs as I cant have loads of little detail without the mount board falling apart.ย 

An artist i have taken inspiration from is Paul Jackson, his work mainly involves animals and their skeletons. I am going to do another post discussing him and talking about the concept of his work. His work develops a lot on the idea of how we see animals. I feel this links closely to my work so I wanted to look into his work deeper as a starting point for my work.

https://www.boredpanda.com/skeleton-animal-drawings-pen-pencil-paul-jackson/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Within the photos shown above is a key example of his works, I want to involve colour in my project but not straight away. I feel Jackson used grey scale, highlights and a 3D element in a very developed way to convey his art. This then gives the viewer a better understanding of where the skeleton is coming from and the form of the animals.