Printmaking 03: Collagraph with Photoshop manipulation

Modern Times and Smithereens. Both are collagraph embossings (that is, printed without using ink) on damp Fabriano paper. The colour was added in Photoshop using a 'curves' adjustment layer on the RGB channel.

The resulting antiqued look of the images is a happy accident; I was just trying to adjust the images so the embossing was visible after scanning the print.

Without the colouration, the images are a subtle, tactile white-on-white 3D. It doesn't reproduce well, but is extremely attractive in person.

To make the Modern Times collagraph plate, letters were hand-drawn onto a heavy card (like a thin poster board) cut out with a scalpel and glued onto a much heavier card. Smithereens was made from the offcut of the letters and other scraps on the worktable. Another happy accident.