BLAUGUSTINE

STUDENT COLLAGRAPHS 2006-2007
examples from the many created by teen-age boys at Whitgift School, Croydon, in printmaking workshops I taught as visiting artist.

COLLAGRAPHS are prints from plates built from materials other than the usual printmaking ones of copper, zinc, wood or lino, although they might incorporate any of those. Often a collagraph is made of cut cardboard pieces glued to a base then textured with a variety of materials. Oil or water-based inks are either applied to the surface of the plate with rollers (relief printing) or by intaglio inking, the process used for printing etchings: ink is worked deep into every part of the textured plate, the surface is then wiped, revealing all the tones. Both types of inking can be combined. There are two examples of intaglio-printed plates below. The rest are relief prints, taken from multiple cut-out stencils, assembled on the press and sometimes over-printed several times.  All these prints were printed on damp paper through a traditional etching press.

Two hands

Relief print from stencil

Bright buildings

Relief print from multiple stencils

Red heads

Relief print from stencils

Branches

Relief print from stencil

Timber floating

Intaglio print from textured cardboard plate

Demolished

Relief print from multiple stencils

Profiles

Relief print from multiple stencils

Blue buildings

Relief print from multiple stencils

The city

Intaglio print from textured cardboard plate

Shadowlands

Relief print from multiple stencils

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