Tutors Report Assignment 4 (11th July 2011)

Tutor Report Form

Student name: Simon Allard
Student number: 487150
Course/Module title: Printmaking
Assignment number: 4 – Collatype collage block

Overall Comments
You've worked really well with this process...it can be quite a challenge, soaking your paper and transferring enough even pressure throughout to make a good print. Your log-book is excellent; you consistently reflect on your strengths and weaknesses and your planning in your sketchbook has enabled you to take an idea through into print, using the unique effects that collagraph can bring. Using the theme of the bunker hill and Stanley Spencer you have honed in on subjects that inspire you to good effect, although the clarity of what you had in mind didn't always give the results you were aiming for....but you have learned from this! It is certainly a form of printmaking that requires experience of your materials and how they will 'look' once printed and it often works best in combination with other processes and techniques.

Feedback on assignment

Project 11
Your block is full of contrasting materials, divided up to show each one clearly. Sometimes, the slightest difference is risen relief of those materials can impact on each other during the printing process; for example the hessian is much lower down than the cable brackets, so it can be harder to get an even and exact impression of the both. If ink is pushed into the lower regions, it would be printed in intaglio, wiping areas of the higher surface clean of ink and this can only be successfully done with the use an etching press. It's clear to see that the cartridge paper seems to take the best printing of the block; the Somerset needs soaking and it's such a thick paper proving more difficult to 'hand-burnish (far more successful and widely used with the use of a press). It's well worth using your fingers and hand as you did to take the print, as well as rollers or a wooden spoon. Some people have been known to run their car over a plate! I like the way you've experimented with the way you apply the ink not only with a roller, but with palette knife too, to pick up other areas that perhaps the roller cannot reach, and yes, this then verges on the Intaglio method of inking-up. You have discovered the need to lie your prints flat under weight if they have been dampened to ensure they dry flat. The filler that you draw into will make for some interesting gestural marks for future use, giving you some freedom to express movement and form. You enjoyed the effects gained by screwing up watercolour paper; tissue paper is great too and easier to manipulate whilst drying. There's a material called scrim too; finer and softer than hessian but similar in it's woven texture and often used in etching. Hessian can also come in different wefts – one more open than the other.
When proofing a plate it's often worth inking in black first to truly show you all the details clearly on the white paper background, before then experimenting with colour, but the rich deep blue and especially the two tone pink and blue show plenty of details of the materials used.


Project 12
Your mark-making experiments with carborundum and filler are interesting. Carborundum is really best printed with a press, but you can see the results here by hand that a variety of tones can be created, depending on the grade you use (fine through to course) Some people like to make a porridge paste, mixing it with glue or acrylic medium, or painting direct with just the glue and then sprinkling it on.
The physical construction of the bunker composition is very well thought out...balancing out shapes, both positive and negative to good effect. The wiping and smearing of inks over the plate, alongside the rolled areas makes for depth and layers of colour. Some react well to this; yellow over printed slightly with blue can bring out green areas. Wiping in one colour and over-rolling with another colour can also produce interesting effects. Each print in this bunker series is unique and different and the cartridge paper is certainly a better option to print on. Your use of stencils to mask out certain areas and you thorough planning bring together a number of natural and man-made structures together; however each part also speaks on it's own. Certain areas seem to separate themselves from the whole – it could be that there's too many contrasting colours and the range of textures are too wide; sometimes less is more! Limiting your palette to bring together colours in the same spectrum, warm or cold, could help unify the whole. The most appealing surface texture here is the foreground deep red sienna; the rubbing of the ink gives it a uniform tone, but still allows for elements of light and dark that adds to it's depth. It looks like you have printed with water-based inks – the overall effects are significantly softer and paler than an oil-based ink would be, or the Caligo safe wash range of relief inks...where they stand up well to printing on damp paper without seeing watery blurred spots. I wonder if these prints may stand out stronger if they had a white border around them, as apposed to being printed to the edge of the paper.
I love the expressive mature of the angel prints, inspired by Stanley Spencer. There's a freshness to these prints, with their soft, faint effects of tone and texture. Using ply as your matrix (plate) and building up with filler that you've drawn into is lovely...the intaglio effects are interesting considering you've not printed with a press. Other surfaces to use filler, carborundum or other materials on would be mount-board, steel or aluminium plate or Rhenalon (available from Great Art) – all of which give you the opportunity to use areas of the plate as you would with a monoprint; wiping away areas of ink or mark-making, as well as scratching into0 the surface with an etching needle. Shellac varnish is a great sealant for these plates – available in flake form that you dissolve with meths. You have used stencils to great effect, to control the specific areas of positive or negative space that you want to print...and you can continue to use stencils throughout the printing process as you build up in layers of colour on one print, ideally going from light to dark colours. Your use of back-drawing is beautiful....there's room for more of this! The thicker pastel papers don't seem to be absorbent enough though to take a good coverage of ink...cartridge or newsprint are perhaps preferable. I like the way you have limited your palette, bringing warm and cold colours together-the blues complimenting the ochres and giving an ephemeral feel to the overall image; in line with subject. You discern well the strengths and weaknesses in these prints and adjust the composition and subject accordingly. The portrait format is less vague and gives a sense of place and the tinted pastel paper produces a warm glow throughout. Rollers can't always touch every area of a built up surface in filler/carborundum and this is where a softer roller or a press come in handy, but on this scale you have done well to take an impression of your block, and the possibilities for further experiments are endless.
The tactile nature of collagraph printing has suited your painterly approach to printmaking and it has shown you its potential for further work.

Learning logs/critical essays
Your learning log is full of critical observations about your work, the processes you have engaged with and the success of the materials you have used. Your critical observations inspired by David Haycock's book are super – putting artists into the context of 'their' time and their experiences is so valuable. It shines a new light on their work and it's meaning and allows you to think about your own artistic concepts, their meaning to you and their influences. Continue to view other artists work and perhaps hone in on a particular printmaking process that you enjoy and like the effects of and assess how it's been used by others.

Suggested reading/viewing
Alexander MacKenzie 'Harbour', lithograph
Karl Weshke 'Fissure', lithograph
John Wells 'Composition', lithograph
www.thecurwenstudio.co.uk
www.rableydrawingcentre.com

Other



Tutor name: Nichola White
Date 11th July, 2011
Next assignment due September, 2011