FROM DRAWING TO PRINT

People rarely see me make a plate and never see me print one, so here it is, the struggle to make new work, I find it fascinating to see how artists put their work together, here is an insight into the technical issues I have been having over the past couple of weeks. 

I spent the summer playing with some different images.

Not just birds...I had an idea that I would like birds perched on statues, so spent

days drawing, drawing.

I plumped on an image I liked the idea of, in my head I knew I would change it as I went along, what I didn't know was that it would be so difficult to get right.  This collagraph plate is made from grey board, wood glue, skim and repair plaster and carborundum. On this plate the neck was all wrong.

But I quite liked the way the tones on the face printed.

So I made another plate, thinking that I would alter the drawing and make the composition tighter.

But too much glue and the shape of the face was all wrong. Now I am beginning to sound like something out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears because

the third plate was just right!

I proofed this collagraph yesterday and bingo...not perfect but certainly better.

I made some chine collee by printing gold ink onto tissue.

I inked the rook in Hawthorn dense black and the statue in brown black, the paper is Snowdon buff.

giving me an image I feel happier with. 

Rather than try to make this perfect I am moving on to another collagraph and will put into practice everything I have learnt from this one.

3 days drawing, 2 weeks plate making, 3 days printmaking...certainly not instant art.