Collagraph Prints

I often get asked what a Collagraph Print is, so I thought I'd try and explain!

 Its a collage printmaking technique which involves using a card plate to start off with and then adding various items to make textures and levels which will eventually make the final image.  Paper, fabric, string, leaves, magazine pages, tissue paper etc can be stuck to the plate as long as the surface is fairly even, has no sharp bits and will go through the printing press then the list is endless! Acrylic paint, enamel paint, acrylic texture mediums etc can also be used and these can give a very painterly effect often showing the brushstrokes when printed. Also carborundum can be used to print a very strong black. Carborundum is a fine silica grit that needs to be stuck down very strongly and creates a lot of texture that will hold lots of ink. Some people also seal their plates especially if they have a lot of things stuck to the plate that could come loose while printing, personally I don't seal my plates as I like to use the surface of the card as one of my printed textures.

With a collagraph printing plate the more texture it has on the plate the more ink it will hold and the darker the image will print, the smoother the surface of the plate the less ink it will hold and the lighter it will print. It takes a while to get your head round how to design a printing plate and what to use to get the textures you desire, it also doesn't help that you have to work backwards too!

Some Examples of My Collagraph Printing Plates

Collagraph printing is great because it is a really safe way of printing and I do it on my dining room table! There are no dangerous fumes like with etching and I tend to use the offcuts of mountboard for my printing plates so it is fairly inexpensive. Also I love the fact that I can cut my printing plates into shapes like on some of my animal prints below. See how the printing plate takes on the colour of the inks that I have used to print them with!

These are the printing plates below that I am currently working on. As well as working backwards I also work white on white which takes some getting used to!

This is my elephant collagraph printing plate on the left and the pink print that was produced from it on the right. You just have to be careful when cutting the plates into shapes that you don't leave any thin parts which could bend/snap when printing.

Pink Elephant

Heres my Black Cat collagraph print hot off the press!

Black Cat

I often think the printing plates in themselves make great works of art and one day I will have to put on an exhibition of just the collagraph printing plates!

Clare xx

Competition Time

I've decided to run a little competition from my Facebook page ClaresPrints to win one of my very popular Hippo linocut prints.

Hippo Linocut Print

 For anyone not on Facebook heres how you can enter:

Have a look in either my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ClareSherwen or my Folksy shop https://beta.folksy.com/shops/ClareSherwen and pick one item to promote in some way. It could be on Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon etc. Then let me know in the comments which item you have promoted and where for an entry into the competition. 

I'm going to draw the winner on Monday 20th January. Well I'm actually hoping I can get my cat to draw the winner as he loves playing with rolled up bits of paper and I'm sure I can persuade him to draw one out of a hat!

Good luck!

Clare xx

Steampunk Penguin

  A little artwork project I have been working on after Christmas is dressing up animals in steampunk inspired clothes! This penguin has been in my head for a long time so it was great to find the time to finally get him out of there! 

Originally he was only going to have a hat but I couldn't resist adding a smart waistcoat and cravat.

Steampunk Penguin Acrylic Painting

 Of course I couldn't resist making him into a collagraph print (printmaking process using a card printing plate with various textures added) and he just had to have a nice coloured waistcoat and cravat. It can get quite complicated doing more than one colour in printmaking and one thing I'm not good at is registering printing plates which you have to do when printing each colour on a seperate printing plate, I just don't think I have the patience. I decided when I was designing this collagraph printing plate to keep in mind I that wanted to print all the colours in one go which if I was not careful could all end up a very muddy mess!

Printing plate

Heres the printing plate ready to print. The blue is just textured acrylic paint, if you look very closely there are some cogs embedded in the paint so these will print very subtly in the background.

 This is the first colour, a kind of blue black metallic colour which was applied all over the printing plate and then wiped off again to just leave the colour in the indentations/roughest part of the plate. (Apologies for the messy background, I always think you have must have had a very good printing session when you find you have to wipe ink off door handles, lightswitches and your face!)

 The next step I added an acetate stencil shape of the penguin to mask this out while I applied the blue background a la poupee (French for the doll), basically applying a different colour to the printing plate with a small pad of fabric rolled up tightly so that the ink stays on the surface of the plate and the black background ink still shows through.

The penguin stencil was then removed and another stencil applied which covers all the background and  only the waistcoat is then showing. I applied red ink a la poupee.

 

 This stencil was removed and another applied with only the cravat showing. Purple ink was applied.

Heres a close up of the finished printing plate all ready to go onto the press to be printed!

Steampunk Penguin Collagraph Print

 And the finished very dapper penguin resplendent in his red waistcoat and purple cravat!

Clare xx

Exhibitions

This year I decided my plan was to get my artwork into as many exhibitions as possible!

I'd had enough of trying to sell my artwork at craft fairs last year. I was so sick of being stuck in the freezing cold, expensive fair fees and dealing with rude people to make not very much money when I could be selling online at home in the warmth! It hit me when I was doing a Christmas craft fair last year that I had over £85 worth of online painting commissions to work on while at the craft fair and yet I barely scraped the craft fair fee in sales that day. From then on I decided to concentrate on the online sales and exhibitions. I do miss the people you meet at the craft fairs but definitely don't miss the frozen hands and toes!

My first exhibition for the year was through Staffordshire Enjoy Art - a company that promotes local artists and organises three local exhibitions in the year. I wasn't sure if I would be able to exhibit with them as I don't quite live in Staffordshire but they were very welcoming and produced some very well organised exhibitions.

The first exhibition was at Shugborough Hall, Stafford where I had two collagraph prints displayed - "Twisting Upwards" and "East Wing". I also had great fun exploring behind the scenes of Shugborough Hall when picking up my work after the exhibition!

Staffordshire Enjoy Art Spring Exhibition - Shugborough Hall - 30th March to 13th April 2013

 

More Kittens!

Kitten Charm Acrylic Painting

I couldn't resist doing another blog about my new little kitten Morpheus, although he is growing up fast and won't be a kitten for very long!

Helping me pack for my latest exhibition!

 I love taking photos of him and can't stop painting him, he is just too cute! His favourite thing at the moment is playing with the bathroom tap, he loves watching the water. Although every time he gets his paws wet he is still shocked and never seems to learn! He has also fallen down the toilet a couple of times by being too inquisitive!

 

I sometimes wonder if he thinks he is a dog though as he loves fetching his ball for you to throw and can do it for hours without getting bored. Also whenever we play in the garden he always likes to find and bring a stick in to play with him and he loves to grab all the letters when they comes through the letterbox!

He also loves to follow me everywhere and wants to help me with everything. Here he is helping me take photos of my latest paintings, of him of course!

Kitten Grin Acrylic Painting 

 

 

I've just started doing a series of collagraph prints of him. The first is called Dreamy - he does dream a lot usually of either eating or chasing things!

Dreamy Collagraph Print

I've just started doing another today so here is a sneak preview, still lots of work to do!

I'm hoping to exhibit my prints of him at the new Staffordshire Enjoy Art group exhibition at Cannock Chase Museum starting 21st October so I better stop playing with my kitten and get printing him!

Clare xx

Cats!

Well it has been a bit of a mad week and you can see why! This is Morpheus the dream kitten and he was just so cute I couldn't resist him!

I've been inspired to do lots of paintings of him but he does like to help usually by chewing the paintbrush!

Black & White Kitten

He doesn't stay still for very long so getting photos to work from has been a bit difficult!

Here is he is with his favourite toy a rattly ball that he likes to get you to throw and he will fetch it back for more (I'm sure he thinks he is a dog!)

Today I decided to do a few watercolour paintings of him until he pushed a full jar of water into my lap and decided my watercolour paints were a new fun toy!

Sleepy Kitten

Kitten Charm

Kitten & Ball

I've also been doing a bit of linocut printing as he looked so cute in this pose!

Kitten Play

Kitten Cute

  I can see much more kitten themed artwork to come!

How to print a Kitty Cat!

Purple Cat Collagraph Print