I decided to use the original single colour lino cut I did of Brompton Cemetery earlier in the course as the basis of my chine colle print series. I realised at the outset that the solid block of colour in the background would detract from the effect I wanted to get so I striated it with a lino chisel to get a hatched effect.
I had planned to use copper and gold foil together with some delicate Indian tissue paper with strands of fibre embodied in it. I wanted to get a highly decorative and visually rich effect and yet not lose the compositional strength of the original photo and lino print. I wondered if the tissue paper I was using was too subtle.
I started by mono printing a pale blue on eight sheets of paper using a stencil cut the same size as the lino block. I varied the marks I made so that some went in the same direction as the striations on the lino block and some went in the other direction. I was very much aware of the problems I had had with the background in my original Reduction Method print of the iron shackle where I had used a cross hatched effect for the background and it had been too busy and had failed. I resolved to make the marks more more 'whippy' and random. On some I rollered a flat colour onto the plate without textural mark making. I used three different varieties of cartridge paper and the last of my expensive BFK Rives paper.
For the over print I started by using a bright warm red but as I progressed with the series I greyed it down using blue so the colours changed throughout the series. I had no idea what I was going to do with the foil or bits of paper and I hoped that would become clear as I evolved the series.
I had already worked out from my working drawings that using the copper and gold foil was extraordinary fiddly and difficult to get a satisfying effect with. I found that using ordinary kitchen foil, which was thicker and screwing it up and then unscrewing it was more effective. I also found that the use of distressed kitchen foil became focused on the cross in the foreground and the overprinting of blue/green greys onto it was particularly pleasing.
I used the Indian tissue paper randomly and to no effect and stopped using it in favour of orange tissue paper which gave some really interesting mid tones where it crossed areas of the paper that had not been printed on. I tried to make the application of the orange tissue paper match the shadows but the shapes I had to cut out were so complexed that I simplified the shapes and created an almost abstract effect that broadly corresponded with the shadows. By this time I had used up all my eight prints and yet I felt I was really getting somewhere so I started another series which I initially mono printed as before.
I had run out of expensive paper by this time and resorted to good quality cartridge paper for all of the final series as I could discern no advantage to using expensive paper although I did feel that one of my earlier promising prints had suffered by being printed on cheap thin cartridge paper.
In my second series I wanted to explore the use of the orange tissue paper to support the shadows in the original composition but I also wanted to explore the use of kitchen foil on the nearest cross. Fairly early on I found that the tin foil worked best if it was cut exactly to the shape of the cross rather than as an abstract effect and I began to wonder if my Indian tissue paper might've worked if it had supported a compositional element in the print rather than just being used in an abstract way.
I tried various shapes using the orange tissue paper until I was getting the sort of half and half abstract/figurative effect I was looking for. In the final print I used the tin foil cross, the semi abstract orange tissue paper shadows and also I cut out the exact shape of the furthest cross in Indian tissue paper to see if it worked that way. I peeled the paper away from the block with eager anticipation and revealed probably my most successful print to date.
Appraisal
Half of what I wanted to do I had planned in advance and half evolved as both series went on. This working method allowed me to respond to what arose rather than being bound by preconceptions and I welcomed this freedom.
The brief was to produce a series of four prints incorporating chine colle techniques in different colour schemes, on different papers incorporating metal foil, thin papers and other materials and I have met these requirements.
I wanted to produce prints that were highly decorative and visually rich but which supported the compositional strength of the original lino cut. I think the combination of the silver foil with the light blue ink has the sort of opulent, far eastern feel and richness I was looking for and the overprinting of a darker tone on the nearer cross adds a further dimension that speaks of the intricacy of the original stonemason's work and the the delicate tracery of his carving. There is an overall sense of fine, expensive craftwork in some areas.
The Indian tissue paper in the final print enhances the exotic atmosphere and the suspended fibres add interest upon closer examination without detracting from the compositional strength of the piece as a whole. Where the orange tissue paper has been used to create subtle mid tones it is more abstract but never loses the connection with the shadows and thus works within the figurativeness of the image. However I love the tension between abstract and figurative in this part of the work.
I am pleased with the final print. This is one of the rare occasions on this course when a print or series of prints has met my expectations.
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