Collagraph

I have a brief history with collagraphs that is fraught with tension. On the one hand, the collagraph is an awesome side branch of printmaking. And I loves me some printmaking. On the other hand, it is a natural medium for generating beautiful, unexpected textures in your artwork. But on the third hand, almost all of my experiments with it have been disasters.

That said, I have embarked on another adventure in collagraphs. This time, I'm using an earlier gyotaku print that I wrote about here. I made a few photocopies at 50% size and proceeded to cut them up, slather them with modeling paste and gel medium. Here's the result:

Midway through collagraph's journey

 I printed it this afternoon and I'm... not completely disappointed. I think it's a good start, but that it needs a lot more... what? Layers? Texture? Background? I'll keep working, you keep reading and I'll let you know how it goes.

The resulting beast.