Have you ever printed different textures on a piece of paper? I did something similar by doing a technique called mark making. But this is a little different by the technique of the printing.
What is collagraph?
It is a printing process where different types of materials are paste on a plywood or MDF board using glue. It is then brushed over with a layer of shellac. The design on the wood block is then printed on a paper using lino ink.
I realized it was easier to do something abstract rather than a composition. I thought that it would be more interesting. I used a piece of plywood as my base. I collected different materials such as old cloth, wooden sticks, aluminium foil, pencil shavings and many more. Instead of covering the base with materials only, I tried to add some random cravings on empty spaces in between.
After the glue is dried, I added one more layer to make the materials stick properly to the base. Later on, I applied a layer of shellac to make it waterproof and easy to apply the lino ink.
This is my collagraph design.
I did one test print to check the quality of the print.
These are my five different collagraph prints I did.
And I finally picked one collagraph for my artist proof.
After this assignment, I learned that collagraph is not an easy printing technique to do. It requires me to practice until I get use to the printing press. Furthermore, I learned that pasting different materials on the base gives different texture to the prints.