Summer School - Printmaking (Collagraph and Drypoint)

Another year, another summer school! This year I learnt drypoint, collagraph and monoprinting. Well, in fact I did this course last year and enjoyed it so much I did it again! The talented and very patient Christine Tacq inspired us all, and every night we went home tired, happy and very paint-covered... Intaglio and relief printing were confusing to start with, but soon prints were rolling off the press... I am now wondering whether I could try etching, as I love the amount of detail that can be achieved, and many more prints can be run off, as the drypoint was etched into board, whereas etching is into metal.

In the pictures, the one with three sections is a mixture of drypoint and collagraph and was done after going to Giffords Circus (a lovely, family-run circus with no creatures that should be in the wild). The fish on a plate is drypoint, and the butterflies picture is collagraph (material, sand, etc., glued onto a card).