Make an Intaglio Style Collagraph Print

Pulling a collagraph print from the plate after a trip through the press, featuring a woman cuddling with a cat

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Make an Intaglio Style Collagraph Print

I’ve been making a collagraph print from a scrap sheet of mat board, carved with a number 11 facto knife blade and sealed a glossy acrylic varnish. Sealing the plate with varnish is the final step to make a paper-product sturdy enough to pull a print from.

A girl and her cat are my subjects, and the shape of the composition reminds me of a figure eight, or an ampersand (&).

What is intaglio style? The word in Italian (intagliare) means to incase, carve or engrave. In printmaking, intaglio refers to printing from ink in the recessed areas of a plate. Relief printing refers to printing from the uppermost or top surface of a plate.

Intaglio: printing from ink nestled in recessed areas. Relief: printing from ink sitting on the uppermost surface.

In Praise of Lines

Most collagraph prints shared online feature graphic shapes, printed from plates that have been built up in a topographic approach.

With traditional collagraph prints, you’re inking both intaglio and relief style, and printing from all surface levels of the plate. Happy accidents with ink transferred from the curb of a raised shape, as well as the shape itself are common wonders in collagraph prints.

Printing from both the recessed areas and the uppermost shapes adhered to the collagraph plate.

Choose Your Collagraph Printmaking Approach

I love drawing, and line work. Approaching collagraph prints using only intaglio can give your prints a very “drawn line” feel. Details translate effectively with narrow, and shallow incised line work cut from a sheet of scrap mat board.

In the photo below, you can see the image is more of a drawn portrait, featuring lots of incised lines. The final print will look very different than a collagraph created by adding layers of other materials and adhering them to the plate.

Carving into the verso of a scrap sheet of mat board sealed with acrylic gloss
Adding carborundum (sand paper grit) to areas I’d like to hold ink – even after wiping the plate – which will print dark
Using a rolled felt dauber to apply dark ink the the sealed collagraph plate
After wiping the inked collagraph print with tarlatan and newsprint, I’m using cotton swabs to remove even more ink for the lightest areas of the print. You can see how much ink is still left behind in the recessed line work of the plate.
After a trip through the press pushing soaked and blotted printmaking paper against the inked and wiped collagraph plate; pulling the collagraph print
The freshly pulled print on the left, and the collagraph plate on the right. Lots of line work, some lovely plate tone and for contrast – a dark cat where I used carborundum on the plate.
I’m considering a color version of this print, using the daubers to apply colors to parts of the plate in the a la poupee method. Should I?
Testing colors before inking with an application of colored pencil on the monochrome print above. (Available for sale here.)

What Are You Working On?

So, collagraph prints are nudging each other for space and process over here in my studio.

I’ve got several more in the queue, so you can subscribe here if you want to be sure to catch them. What are you working on? Leave me some details in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post –

Belinda

P.S. This is a fun essay in The New Yorker about a woman who didn’t start making art till she was in her 50’s and now, in her 90’s, she’s totally immersed in it.

Art Quote

You never see a five year old walk past an old drawing and say “Ya know, I really have to change the tail on that dragon. I didn’t make it long enough.”  They instinctively know that the moment to draw that dragon has come and gone. And they’re okay with that. They start a new drawing of a dragon instead. With a better tail.
It’s easy for a kid to have that mentality, because they don’t have any baggage yet.  Adults have plenty of baggage. I call it art-baggage. We are overly precious, we fall in love with everything that we do. We’ve collected this long list of rule-sets about when a painting is finished, about mixing colors, about composition, about how to set up your palette, and it kind of squeezes the life out of the process of painting.

a mat board collagraph being pulled from the plate after a trip through the press
Another collagraph incised for intaglio printing, but with lots of plate tone still visible on the upper surface, which transfers to the paper beautifully. The details on methods for this collagraph print are over here.

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8 thoughts on “Make an Intaglio Style Collagraph Print”

    1. Hi Melissa, I’m grinning because *of course* you’d enjoy the line quality of the print! Queen of Lines! 🙂 I hope you do give it a try! I bet you’d handle the line work with all sorts of inventive flavors. 👍🏽

  1. Beautiful work! Thanks for showing how to do this. I’m currently working my way through linocuts, but I really love the tones in this, This whole printing thing is like a magic act!

    1. Hello Pat, Linocuts are a whole lot of fun, and I feel like each new print carries a few more layers of possibilities. It’s an endless learning curve, full of exciting new tricks. And yes, printmaking is a magic act, and each new print we pull has us holding our breath for the “peel and reveal”. Thanks for your note.

  2. Hello Belinda
    Thank you very much for sharing your work! Very interesting. I have a workshop in France and I’d like one day to share this type of work with my students (adult and even chidren but I don’t know yet how to deal safely with children).
    I have a question : I don’t have a press. Is this method possible without a press ? I practice monotype and linocut without a press, but I’m wondering if the intaglio method is possible without a press?
    Thank you for your answer and take care 🙂
    Delphine

    1. Hello Delphine, Intaglio printing is possible without a press, but I wouldn’t recommend it for kids, as I think they need immediate success in order to stay interested in a new printmaking process. Hand transfers of intaglio prints can be done, but they’re time consuming and challenging. Potential for many failures before you get everything just right. I would recommend following the Craft Press Printmakers group on Facebook, to learn how to transform a small embossing or stenciling craft machine into a press. https://m.facebook.com/groups/1544918272204523/? With one of their great machine hacks, you can print intaglio to your hearts content, over and over without a hiccup.

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