Part 4: Project 12 - Developing Collagraph Prints

 Inspiration:

The research at the beginning of this part gave me some inspiration to take into this next project. Already a lover of nature and having explored this area already in this course, I wanted to continue that for my Collagraph.

Having not been out a great deal because of lockdown at the moment when I have been out I have been so drawn so the beauty of late Autumn. The colours fading from the beautiful oranges and  golds of Autumn into the starkness of Winter. Its been quite mosty lately and combined with the colours of nature right now, this has really inspired me for my Collagraph. Having explored emotion and life experiences in my own personal abstract work, I am now keen to explore nature themes and find ways to express the feel and essence of this time of year using abstraction and Collagraphs.

Photos:

I took a few photos late afternoon one day to try to capture the misty, cold atmosphere.

I then went onto create a moodboard with images online to give me more inspiration and to expand on the reference I already had.

Moodboard:

https://pin.it/1FQtZW7

Sketches:

When I work on my abstract paintings I use a very intuitive process, much like Katie Jobling. I will pick the colours ahead and start with a flicker of an idea. I allow the process to shape the painting and let it evolve with the marks and textures I feel drawn to make. I decided to do this with my initial ideas for my Collagraph. Using Procreate on my Ipad I made simple colour choices and added gestural marks. The first ones I made I felt would make great acrylic paintings but I wasn't sure if they would work as a Collagraph. I made some notes and then moved onto explore other ideas.

My designs became more bold and striking, they started very soft and as I thought about the marks I made in my test Collagraphs I tried to apply that to these sketches. I love how all of these came out but decided to follow through with the last image as I felt it gave the atmosphere of the Season as made use of the 3d objects to create a bold, starkness of pending Winter setting in.

Next I wanted to figure out how to create these designs as a collagraph. If these were a painting I could use mixed media in layers and that would be easy for me but to make a Collagraph print I had to think what mediums would work for the look I wanted and how to put them together.

I looked back at my test prints to see what effects I wanted and how I could apply that on the board. I decided to do a mix of the Polyfiller, texture medium, modelling paste and the 3d elements, matchsticks, long spaghetti/cotton buds. These all had the individual textures that could come together to make the final print.

When making the Collagraph I knew I'd need to work in layers so that each area could dry before I added the next, but I also needed to make sure they weren't too thick. I started with the Polyfiller, it's the quickest to dry and it would give me a sweep of colour as the background.

I planned to use my dabbers (a different one for each colour so as not to muddy the ink) to add colour to the right areas and use the roller over the 3D elements.

The next layer I used modelling paste and a palette knife to create a sense of 'frost' and on the lower part I used texture gel for speckles.

When all that was dry I added the 3D elements with PVA. I had a bit of a disaster with the long spaghetti, I left it to dry over night and when I checked it the spaghetti had curled up away from the board. That didn't happen with the original test Collagraph so I am wondering if it's because the spaghetti was left in my studio near the window, maybe it got damaged. Anyway I used fresh spaghetti and on my spare Collagraph  I used cotton buds in case it didn't work again.

For the printing I wanted to use multiple colours to create a late Autumn feel with some frost and I wanted the 3D elements to be stark black, to really stand out just like the bare trees and fences in nature. I'm using my dabbers to add the colours and a roller for the black areas.

Both Collagraph's inked.

Final Prints:

I started printing the cotton bud Collagraph one first thinking that was going to come out best. I did two of these and was quite pleased with the results. I then printed the spaghetti one and found that was much better and really gave the look and feel I was going for. I proceeded to print more of these for the assignment.

These photos were taken at night so the colours look a bit off, in daylight they look much better. I am really pleased with the colours, they were exactly as I intended.

**Updated Photo:

Reflection:

Although making Collagraph's is very new to me and I did find the process a little difficult, I enjoyed it and am really pleased with my final outcomes. The materials I chose gave the effects I was aiming for and the printed really well. With the right amount of ink they came out vibrant and interesting.