Western Landscape (Chine Colle)

Western Landscape (Chine Colle) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This is the third of four prints from Tuesday night's printmaking class at Red Brick. This week we learned to create Chine colle. The process combines collage with printmaking. I made four pieces that night, and for each of them, I used two plates, one to press the collage material onto the paper, and a second to apply blue ink. (You don't necessarily need to do two plates or even use ink at all for this process. However, I wanted to learn as much as possible, which can mean making mistakes. And I did.) I started with a mountain shape cut out of some paper that had an interesting texture, and combined it with the pink paper at the bottom of the composition. I liked the composition of the papers on the plate. I also got a second plate ready with blue ink. But I was disappointed with the result for two reasons. First, when I ran the print through the press the first time, I could see that all that interesting texture had been completely flattened by the press. Then when I ran the inked plate through the press, I was disappointed because I had put too much ink on the plate, so the color was too thick, making it hard to see the mountain shape. But all of this has to do with expectations: if I just look at the image for what it is, rather than for what I expected it to be, I think it is fine. In fact, it does still look a little bit like the mountains in a thunderstorm. So let's just say that I am not sure that this piece is finished. I am considering painting or drawing into the image to make the mountain shape a little bit easier to see. (Chine colle often includes drawing at some point in the process, so this is an opportunity to learn another approach.) More later on this one. Maybe.