Printing a Tiger!

Tiger Tiger - Oil Painting

Just after the New Year I was feeling very sorry for myself, full of cold and didn't know what to do for my next project when one of my oil paintings from last year caught my eye. Tiger Tiger was something I painted to play around with my oil paints so was very loose and fun, I wondered if I would be able to produce a collagraph print of this image keeping some of that loose element.

Here's my collagraph printing plate made from a piece of mountboard with textures added, I wanted the image to be quite loose and painterley to keep the essence of the painting.

 The plate about to be inked in  a very tiny space cleared on my dining room table!

The inking messyness begins! I use the Caligo Safewash etching inks as I like to be able to clean everything up with water afterwards and no smelly turps!

 The printing plate completely covered in ink and just starting to wipe the ink off again to reveal the tiger.

The printing plate is all wiped and ready to print but I wanted to add a touch of colour. The areas where I don't want the colour to be are masked off. This is done with clear plastic which sadly you can't see very well in the photo. I then add the ink "a la poupee" - basically with a tightly scrunched up piece of cloth dabbed onto the plate in certain areas.

This is my very technical water soaking area - usually known as my bath!

And my paper blotting area - the bathroom floor and a towel!

The moment of truth after the dampened paper and printing plate is put through the printing press, always an exciting and tense moment!

The finished Tiger print, not 100% happy with it but I will live with it for a few days and then decide if any changes need to be made.


Clare xx