Week 10 _ Introducing Collagraph

Tomorrow you will begin building a collagraph plate as part of our intaglio unit. You will choose one of your remaining 6x8" compositions for the subject matter. Note that this is meant to act as a companion piece to your drypoint print. Tomorrow I'd like you to have a new 6x8" drawing (making a total of 3 designs that you will submit as part of the overall grade for this unit). I'd also like you to review this blogpost and watch the embedded video demonstration of the technique for building plates. You do not need to start any of the steps in the video, just watch it as a preview for class so that my demonstration may be shorter and more specific allowing more time for you to work. 

I will provide the mat board backing for this plate. You should bring a sharp X-acto knife. You may also wish to bring scrap paper in a variety of weights and textures. 

Collagraph _ a combination of the words “collage” and “graphic” to describe a print made from a matrix built with collage materials.

For context, here are a few images of a drawing translated into a collagraph plate and then inked two different ways before printing. 

Getting Started

Materials: 

• white school glue (liquid is desired over gluestick)
• X-acto knife with a fresh blade
• scissors
• a selection of paper varying in weight and texture (as thin as tracing paper and no thicker than cereal box material)
• paint brushes
• masking tape
• mat board 
• acrylic matte medium
• foam brush
• tracing paper/carbon transfer paper

Start by sealing your plate with the fluid matte medium using your foam brush. A thin layer, both front and back. (Be sparing with the medium, it's most important as a final layer so you want to make sure you save enough.)

Build your image as a collage by glueing paper shapes to the mat board. You may also create texture by brushing on acrylic and cutting lines/shapes into the surface of the board. Watch the following video to see how I built this plate:

WEEK 10 _ Intaglio: Inking and Printing

Today I demonstrated the intaglio inking and printing process. This post serves as a reminder of the steps as outlined in the handout provided in class. There is also a video of my class demo at the end.

NOTE: You may not print your drypoint plate until you have showed me your plate and gone over the process with me. This is especially true for those that missed class today.

DRYPOINT _ Printing Process

 

A.) The Press

Printing Drypoint plates requires a different setup for the etching presses that includes additional blankets and higher pressure settings. Here’s a diagram of how the press will be set up for printing intaglio: 

Starting Pressure settings for the plastic drypoint plates =    Betty _ 18   / Boop _ D-0

 

B. Printing Preparation (do all of this before getting any ink out!): 

·       Tear your printing paper to size (minimum 8 x 10”)

·       Gather inking materials like newsprint, matboard inking cards, rags, etc. at the inking table

·       Press Setup = Confirm press pressure. Arrange blankets in correct order and even on the press bed. Make sure there is a clean protective cover sheet of newsprint between the blankets and the registration sheet. 

·       Confirm that the Registration Sheet is on the press and that it’s clean.

 

C. Soak your printing paper

Your paper will need to soak in clean water for a period of time (usually not less than 15 minutes, though this may vary by paper type) in order to loosen the fibers and make it pliable enough to be compressed into the plate during printing. It’s wise to get your paper into the soaking trays before getting into any of the other steps so that when your plate is inked and ready your paper will be too.

Note: In PENCIL, lightly initial your printing paper on the back to identify which sheets belong to you since we’ll be sharing tray space. This also lets you know what side is the front when printing.

 

D. Inking your Plate (Note that the ink for this process is not the same as the ink used for relief!)

E. Printing

·       Lay your inked plate upright on the registration sheet in the inner rectangle.

 

CLEAN HANDS ONLY FROM HERE ONWARDS!

·       Remove your gloves and retrieve a piece of printing paper. Hold it over the soaking tray until most of the excess water has drained off. (Slow individual drips)

·       Place your paper between two sheets of blotter paper and blot off remaining excess water. The paper needs to be damp and soft to print, not wet. If you see shiny spots on the surface blot a little more.

·       Place your dampened paper on to the plate using the registration sheet as a guide. 

·       Carefully lower the newsprint and blankets over the plate and gently smooth them out. 

·       Roll everything through the press at an even speed.

 

F. Print Drying/Flattening

·       While printing you may place prints on drying rack BUT before they dry completely it’s good to stack them with sheets of newsprint in between them and a little weight on top so that they dry flat. (in your cubby)

 

G. Wrapping up* 

·       Relieve the Pressure on the press and move blankets to lower shelf.

* NEVER leave the blankets under pressure! This will create a permanent impression in the felt and ruin them. 

Video DEMO:

WEEK 8 _ New Territory > "Intaglio"

 New Territory _ INTAGLIO

Thus far this semester we’ve practiced “relief” printing techniques. For Print #4 we’ll explore intaglio, which requires different techniques at almost every stage of the process. 

Intaglio: In contemporary usage the term refers to any printing matrix where ink is held in recessed areas of a matrix. (So we might think of this as the inverse of relief printing where ink sits on the surface areas of the matrix.)

  

Traditional intaglio platemaking processes fall into two categories:

•   processes where lines are inscribed into a plate directly by hand, such as engraving and drypoint
•   processes which employ acids to establish images on metal, known as etching

Historically intaglio processes used soft but sturdy metals as plate matrices. Copper and Zinc plates are in common usage in most traditional etching studios. However in recent years, the desire to move away from toxic chemical processes and interest in emerging materials have led to the use of various plastics as plates. 

Pablo Picasso_ Portrait of Olga in a Fur Collar (Portrait d'Olga au col de fourrure)1923 _printed 1955

Drypoint is the most straightforward of the direct techniques and is accomplished by simply scratching into the surface of a plate with a sharp tool. As the tool is scratched across a plate, a burr is raised. In addition to the ink which is held in the incised line, this burr also traps ink, which accounts for the soft quality of the printed line.  

Drypoint plates have a limited life. This is especially true of the soft plastic plates that we will use. As the plate is printed, the burr gets flattened and holds less ink. 

Carroll Dunham _ Untitled from Shadows_ 1989

Print #4: Drypoint 

For this print you have two options in terms of theme/subject matter:

A.) Student Choice: You decide the content that you wish to explore. For those of you in Senior Studio this is an opportunity to make something that connects with the content that you're exploring in your capstone.

B.) Thematic Prompt: "Shadows & Echoes." For those of you that prefer to have a little direction and a shared point of departure. 

Design Process: Complete a minimum of 2 sketches on the provided paper. (Paper is 8 x 9"; you should create a live area of 6 x 8", which corresponds to the material that I will provide for this print).

Use a ballpoint pen and fill the entire frame. 

These are due for discussion on Monday 10.21* and will be factored into the rubric during final scoring. Do not throw them away. You will turn them in.

 

*After small group discussions you will immediately select one of your designs and translate it as is or with minor modifications to the plate that I provide following my demonstration of the drypoint technique. You will have until the following class to complete the plate and we will all print on Wednesday Oct. 23. 

TIMELINE