Collagraph
A collagraph plate is a collage of papers or other materials stuck onto a base board, and inked and wiped like an etching. The papers are selected not for their colour, but for their texture, and for how much ink they hold during the wiping process. A heavily textured paper (like sandpaper or coarse cardboard) will hold a lot of ink, while a paper with a shiny surface can be wiped almost clean. Although a collagraph plate can easily be made from recycled materials, it needs a press to print it.
I made a series of Life Studies where I used scissors to cut papers, working directly from the model. I selected papers with different textures and roughened some areas with sandpaper to create the range of tones which I later made into collagraph plates to print.
Another collagraph series is Tracks , developed from landscape sketches as the seasons changed.
Drypoint
A drypoint plate is made by scratching a design directly into a metal plate with a sharp scribe, and then inking and wiping it like an etching. The scribe raises a burr on each side of the scratched line, which holds the ink and creates a characteristic thick velvetty line, typically wider than an etched line.
Read more about my series of drypoints with chine collé, From this day forward in which I imagine the lifetime of a relationship.
Etching
An etching is made by preparing a metal plate (I use zinc or aluminium) by covering it with a waxy ground, and then drawing into the ground with a sharp scribe. The plate is then submerged into acid (I use copper sulphate), and the acid bites into the metal wherever the wax has been removed by the scribe. Once bitten, the waxy ground is cleaned off and the plate is then covered with etching ink, pressing the ink into the etched lines. The plate is carefully wiped with scrim, newsprint and tissue to clean the surface while leaving the ink in the lines, and printed onto thick damp etching paper on an etching press.
Tone can be added to the plate by stopping out areas of the image with any acid-resisting substance and biting it further in the acid (aquatint). More than one colour may be applied onto the plate at once .