Printing a Hippo in 3 Colours

I love printing hippos!

Hippo Collagraph Prints

I've done quite a few hippo collagraph prints over the years, in lots of colours, and these have proved very popular. I wanted to do a slightly different hippo print with three colours printed from the one printing plate. I decided to do a hippo swimming (or floating!) so I could use lots of different blues for the water. Here's one of the photos I used for reference.

Below is the collagraph printing plate before it is has any ink applied. The image is backwards compared to the photo so that when printed it will be the right way round. I use different paints on the cardboard (mountboard) printing plate to get different textures. The yellow is just some cheap acrylic paint with lots of brush marks to create texture! (I use a light colour such as yellow so that I can see it through the inking process to make sure I get ink into every part of the plate.)

I deliberately designed the printing plate to be inked in three different places. The top third to be process blue with lots of extender medium to keep it quite light. The middle to be the hippo in purple ink and the bottom third to be printed in my favourite blue prussian blue. Here's the top part of the printing plate with process blue ink applied in a thin layer avoiding getting any on the hippo head.

 Next I applied the purple ink. I use a scrunched up kitchen cloth to apply the ink (they are cheap and I usually have loads of them) I twisted a corner of the cloth to apply the ink to the smaller places.

Applying the prussian blue to the bottom of the printing plate for the water. I try and be careful to not go over the areas with the other colours and mix the ink too much but I don't mind if a bit of colour runs into another.

Once every part of the printing plate is covered in ink I very carefully blot the plate with newspaper so as not to move the ink around too much and mix the colours.

I carry on wiping with newspaper and tissue paper until there is only a fine layer of ink left on the printing plate. Here's the plate below all wiped and ready to go through the printing press.

  The hippo print hot off my etching printing press!

A whole herd of hippos drying!

Finally, the finished collagraph print!

Hippo Swim Collagraph Print

 Here's the hippo print framed and on exhibition recently at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

A very rare photo of me printing and getting very messy on my dining room table in my very, very inky printing hoody!

Clare xx

Printmaking on my Dining Room Table!

When I put one of my prints online I always say "printed on my dining room table". Here's a little tour of where I produce my prints:

My etching press takes pride of place on my dining room table, we normally have to eat around it if we want to use the table for its proper use! The printing press (which is a bit heavy!) is only moved once a year at Christmas so I can decorate the table and have a proper festive meal!

Here's my lovely press, its a bit battered now and well used but still prints great. I mostly do collagraphs and the occasional linocut print on it and it is perfect for up to A3 size paper. I would love a slightly bigger one but haven't the money or space at the moment.Yes there is a Dalek cookie jar which lives behind it and threatens to Exterminate me if I don't behave!

Hippo Collagraph Print

Here's one of Hippo collagraph prints hot off the printing press!

Temple of Concordia Collagraph Print

And the stunning Temple of Concordia in Sicily.

Because I print from my dining room table I wanted to use non-toxic inks as I didn't want to have the smell and mess of cleaning everything up with white spirit (especially as I usually get ink all over me, the light switches, door handles etc!) I started using the Caligo Safewash etching inks which are oil based but can be cleaned up really easily with water while they are still wet, which is perfect for working from home. This is a photo of some of my very messy inks!

Even though I always wear gloves I always somehow manage to get inky hands!

 Other parts of my house are used in the printmaking process! My bath is used to soak the paper slightly before printing and I have a pile of old towels to blot the paper!

The spare room bed makes a convenient "drying rack" for my prints and can often be found covered in hippos, cats etc!

 

  My other work space is the spare room which has a desk for painting, sewing etc and has to be hastily packed away when anyone comes over to stay!

Elephant Collagraph Printing Plates

  I always take my photos in the garden to make the most of the natural light. The garden table is handy for taking photos - here's my elephant collagraph printing plates before they have been inked and printed.

Hippo Swim Collagraph Print

We have a marble fireplace in the living room which gives a good backdrop for some of my listing photos, I have to clear everything off the mantle piece first though!

Elephant 2 Collagraph Print

Here's another view!

 Hope you enjoyed a behind the scenes look at my printmaking and home "studio"!

Clare xx

Purple Hippo Collagraph Prints

Earlier this year we went on holiday to Orlando, Florida and visited Busch Gardens Zoo. I spent a very enjoyable time watching a very cute hippo and managed to fill my camera's memory card with all the videos and photos I took! Here's me posing in front of the hippo!
 

 

 

 
I decided I just had to produce some artwork based on the photos of the hippo and did a quick watercolour of him:
 

"Hippo Float" Watercolour and Ink Painting.

 And couldn't resist putting him into a top hat and goggles:

"Steampunk Hippo" Acrylic Painting.

I took lots of photos of the hippo swimming and he looked so content and happy in this one I just had to make this one into a collagraph print and decided on making some tiny prints only 10 x 10cm:

 
This is the collagraph printing plate just being covered in prussian blue ink. (The image is reversed on the printing plate).

 
The printing plate fully wiped and ready to go into the printing press.

The finished print just off the press!

I loved this one so much that I decided I must do a couple more prints of the hippo swimming. Here's three of the printing plates inked up and ready to be printed.

And the finished collagraph prints with a touch of purple watercolour paint added to bring out the hippos.

"Hippo Swim 1" Limited Edition Collagraph Print

 

"Hippo Swim 2" Limited Edition Collagraph Print

 

"Hippo Swim 3" Limited Edition Collagraph Print

 They look really good framed too!

I love these so much I might have to do a few more collagraph prints of hippos very soon!

Clare xx



 



 
 

Printing Artwork Cushions!

I love making my artwork more accessible to people so really enjoy printing my art onto different items other than paper. I've worked a little with wearable art - printing onto fabric and then making into fabric cuffs like these examples:

Hand printed flower fabric cuff

Hand printed Steampunk tentacle fabric cuff

Recently I decided the living room needed a little brightening up so I thought I'd print a few cushion covers for myself. I'm now a bit addicted and can't stop making them!

Heres one I made from some scraps of fabric and a Steampunk Cat linocut image.

 

Some Linocut beer bottle cushions!

 I decided to then have a go at making a few to sell and had a search through some of my existing lino printing plates and I know that cats are always really popular so couldn't resist trying out my black cat lino prints onto fabric! Loved printing onto the pinky/purple fabric as its thick wool felt and took the ink really well.

Black Cats drying!

The finished Black Cat Cushion

Black Cat Cushion in blue

Next I had to try my hippo linocut printing plate!

The finished Purple Hippo Cushion

Of course when I'm taking the photos of any of my items my favourite model Morpheus the cat always likes to supervise!  Not sure what he is saying about this cushion but it all got too much for him and he had to have a little sleep!

Looking forward to printing a few more cushions soon!

Clare xx

Purple Animal Prints

I love the colour purple and find myself using it a lot in most of my artwork! When I first started doing my animal collagraph prints I just couldn't resist trying them in purple ink and can't believe how good they look!

Collagraph Print - created from a card plate made by adding glue, paint, enamel, collaged elements etc. This creates textures which hold the ink in varying degrees and is then printed through the intaglio process. This is a great technique for my animal prints as I can cut the card into the animal shapes!

The very first was my hippo collagraph print he just had to be tried in purple and was so popular the edition sold out completely with most of them going to America!

Purple Hippo Collagraph Print

I also did a Purple Elephant, Purple Rhino, Purple Penguin, Purple Tiger and Purple Cat and had to restock my purple printing ink quite a few times!

Recently I have been doing some more animal collagraph prints and couldn't resist doing a few purple ones!

Here's me getting very messy printing a Purple Meerkat.

 

And a Purple Pony hot off the printing press!

 

 

 A few of my toys got to star in the photos too!

Purple Lemur Collagraph Print

 

Purple Meerkat Collagraph Print

 

Purple Pony Collagraph Print

Looking forward to working on a few more purple animals soon!

Clare xx