Last summer, I remember a lovely afternoon spent walking one of our local coastal paths. It was a mellow, late afternoon stroll which was needed for rambling the steep and rugged hilltop. Dispersed across it were delicate, small wildflowers peeking out from the grass. A great contrast to the thorny gorse that grew aside the path in the exposed position facing out to sea. Off the beaten track, the coast was evidently home to many rabbits and some care had to be taken not to trip on their burrows and resting indentations. The scenery from the top was spectacular. A clear day meant we could see far beyond to the distant shore. I took a number of photos. What really inspired me was the range of textures in the cliff face, so rugged and dramatic. Below us the shoreline was also full of textures from sand to pebbles and the gentle ripples of waves.
I decided to make a collagraph based on this place. Before attempting to recreate the scene, I wanted to first make an experiment. I wanted to replicate the ripple effect in the water and find out what media would work best for this. To the left, is a photo of my trial. Each section has been labelled and divided. The lower third of each section has been peeled back to reveal the rough core of the card. This is partly to add further contrast to the media used on top. I applied the textures using a sponge to create rough, organic looking marks.
To the right, is a photo of the trial plates after they had been sealed in button polish.
It is interesting to see the plates prior to printing. It is clear some textures are more prominent and promising than others. I particularly like the bubbles that have remained in the glue surface.
I then inked the plates up using leftover ink from my previous work and had an old sheet of paper ready to print onto. The photo to the left shows how the various media printed. My favourite is the structure gel (not to be confused with texture gel), it has a shiny appearance making it very easy to wipe away during the inking process. It also seemed to be less liable to overwiping for this reason. Many of the other elements were too similar in finish to the smooth card surface despite their raised formations, this gave them only very subtle marks, where the ink collected within their crevices. The rough card texture brought about more contrast with most of the media, enabling the shapes to be more visible. You may notice the ink bleed effect in the corner of the lower plate. This is due to a damp patch on the paper caused by a crease.
In my latest collagraph, created today, shortly after my experiment; I chose to use the structure gel on top of carborundum grit, in order to have even more depth and contrast between the ripples. I gently applied the gel with a brush and sponge, before quickly removing some of it to create ripple shapes.
Now I just have to wait for my plate to dry before I can seal it tomorrow and print it in a few days time.