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



 



 
 

Purple Steampunk Elephants!

Steampunk Elephant Collagraph Print

 
Today I decided to have a look at some of my older collagraph printing plates and do a bit of experimentation with them in different colourways. I really like my Steampunk Elephant printing plate with its cogs etc as it was great fun to design and make. I only ever printed it in a gunmetal grey so wondered what it would look like in my favourite printing ink purple!
 
Here is the printing plate just starting to be covered in a lovely rich purple ink!
 

 

The printing plate all covered in purpleness and being wiped to uncover the elephant beneath!
 

 
 On the etching press ready for the exciting part the printing!

 
Hot off the press - a Purple Steampunk Elephant!
 

 
Here is a sneaky peak at what is going on in the background when I am printing! My printing press is on the dining room table and even when Morpheus the cat is no where to be seen as soon as I start printing he appears to supervise and today to make a nest in my tissue paper!

 I think he liked the print although he was a bit upset I wasn't immortalising him in print like I usually do!

The finished Steampunk Elephant collagraph print looking good in purple!

 

 

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

Painting the Colosseum!

Colosseum Purple Watercolour Painting

We went to Rome a few years ago and ever since then I have been obsessed with painting the Colosseum. I still remember it taking my breath away when we came out from the station and saw it looming right in front of me! I love painting arches, windows, ruins and strong shadows so this was perfect for me!

I've painted it quite a few times in watercolour but I've been experimenting a bit with oil painting recently so thought I'd try to paint it in oils! Heres a few photos of behind the scenes of my painting (some of the photos were taken at night so not the best quality):

The very first sketch onto the canvas with a rough wash of acrylic paint just to get an idea of the structure.

First layer of oil paint to establish some tones and colours. I always paint everything at the same time and lots of layers.

 Lots more tones and a funny greeny colour has appeared!

Brightened up the Italian sky and added a few purple dark tones.

Starting to come together. I can't resist the purple and blues in the shadows!

Pretty much finished, I just like to live with a painting for a while to see if I can spot anything thats not quite right!

Colossuem Oil Painting

The finished oil painting! 

I'm off to Sicily soon so can't wait to be inspired by lots more Italian architecture!

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

Purple Animals!

I'm getting obsessed again! There seems to be purple animals everywhere I look!

It all started with a purple hippo collagraph print that I printed to sell in the Little Hippo Shop last year. I love purple and when it came time for me to proof print the hippo the only colour that came to mind was purple!

Purple Hippo

Next came an elephant, I did originally print him in black but he just didn't look right so he had to be purple too!

Purple Elephant

Then I had a trip to the zoo with my friend and we spent a lot of time at the penguin enclosure so a purple penguin it had to be!

Purple Penguin

Another trip to the zoo and a purple pig was the result!

Purple Pig

A purple tiger and rhino soon followed.

Purple Tiger

Purple Rhino

 Then I just had to print a purple cat, it took a lot of bribery to get this pose!

Purple Cat

Well it seems I'm not the only one that likes purple animals as I've sold out of the purple hippo print not long after Christmas and the others are proving very popular too. Most of them seem to have gone to Canada, I'm not sure what this says! 

I've even done a couple of animals in pink too just because I needed to see a pink elephant!

I've just been working on a brand new big eyed purple cat design and here he is printed on a bag on display at the new We LoVe crafts shop in Wolverhampton.

I really must stock up on some more purple ink for my next series of purple animal prints!

Clare xx