This is a new collagraph plate, it has driven me a bit mad translating the carved lines from my photo in Randwick Woods in Gloucestershire. Now the varnish must dry.
Happy Creative New Year to You!
Author Archives: DianeY
Hello! Thanks for stopping by.
After many years painting I have now turned my attention to printmaking, hand creating printing plates from a mountboard base. I ink them up and pull them through a printing press onto dampened paper. It sounds simple but it is really complicated! The process opened up a whole new world of creativity for me and has furthered discovery into mixed media too.
Shop online here for original Collagraph Prints, Paintings, prints and wildlife decal stickers.
Find and follow me on instagram/facebook etc here .
Email me: diane@dianeyoungartist.com About anything! Questions, enquiries, chat all welcome.
New blog posts below. See my Showcase in the menu for finished artwork. Lots available to buy just click the button below!
“To The Sun and Back”
A kite in flight.
My latest work – Collagraph Print with a 24ct gold leaf sun. To buy online click here .
More about me here: https://linktr.ee/DianeYoung
See how the gold leaf changes with the light!
“To The Sun and Back” – Kite with 24ct gold leaf Sun.
Different angle showing how gold leaf changes in the light.
Shimmering sun
Close up – can you see the gold fleck in his eye!
Collagraph Printmaking with #Gold Leaf
These little collagraphs fit nicely in a 8 x 8 ins frame. All original work at affordable prices. Check out the link here
#giftsofgold original art
Seahorses Aquamarine is an original work of art. A collagraph print hand finished with 24ct gold leaf. Full details below….email me if interested or you have any questions diane@dianeyoungartist.com / FB mssg or check out my instagram and DM me there.
Available to Buy £195 plus P & P
Framed Total size 32cm x 42cm (with A4 aperture)
Collagraph print handpulled onto 300gsm Somerset Velvet paper using Cranfield inks. The image has been hand tinted with watercolour and finished with luxury 24ct gold leaf. Gold leaf gives a unique look in different light..
#Collagraph #Printmaking Process tips
I have made a rubbing of my mountboard plate by lying layout paper (which is very thin) over the top of the plate and using a graphite pencil to get an impression.
I scan or photograph the rubbed image onto my PC and open it in Photoshop. Since the lights and darks of rubbing itself are the opposite of what my final print will look like I invert the black and the white in Photoshop to see what it looks like.
This gives me a very good idea of where the lights and darks will be when I do my final Collagraph print.
See now how the wing is now the highlight and the underside, eye area and lower beak is dark.
On the plate itself these highlights also have wood glue (or you can use PVA) which help to create brighter highlights on the finished print.
I am happy with this; now for the inking and printing!
Foxy Reference for a #Collagraph Print
How does your creativity come to you? There are so many different ways and means for us to form our new ideas. If only (sigh) we could produce utterly original work from referring only to the inside one’s head this is in reality impossible. ldeas cannot possibly arrive from nothing can they? Even if you suddenly have this visual composition roaming in your head based on mathematics or a fantasy style painting inspired by a walk in the woods last week, or an abstract work depicting the feeling of being by the sea since your beach holiday these refer to information already stored which has been absorbed from the world outside of you. And of course we are also informed by seeing other artists’ work; whether that art is produced by your friend or your art group or an Old Master of times gone; this could be incidental or deliberate. It is wasted energy trying to avoid what has been seen or done already!
I usually get a pretty fixed idea of how I want something to look and try to find reference for this from all manner of things. I have stores of actual photos, reference books, lots of my own photos of nature despite how rubbish they might be, snaps from TV programmes, and holiday pics on my PC and also digital storage of old drawings and my paintings. Of course the internet is really useful in figuring out the form of say animals in action, or the way the moon reflects on water, plus there are photographers who allow direct referencing to their work too on Facebook, useful obviously if you really have not seen an alligator up close or such the like.
Sometimes I forget about looking at my own work, most of which will not have been used for final work and even if it has I can use bits of it again.
I am in the process of creating a collagraph plate and looking at fox references at the moment. I want one loping along, with a purposeful gait. I had been looking around on the internet to translate my imagining into some sort of reality but (yet again) could not find the exact form I was looking for. After procrastinating (yet again!) I found a photo taken a long while ago of a fox by chance in a lane local to my house. Unfortunately he was looking back so his head is effectively missing.
Thanks to the search documents facility bringing up everything with “fox” in on my PC I could then see that one of my finished paintings could be useful for the fox head. The Fox and The Grapes below is an original painting still and it is for sale.
The painting is 29 x 33 cm priced at £150. If you are interested in the painting please email me here diane@dianeyoungartist.com or message me here on facebook .
Fortunately I have photoshop so a quick flip and some mucking about with the shapes I have pulled them together and have a perfect reference point to move forward to the next stage of putting my next Collagraph print together. Ta da!
More of my foxes FOR SALE here –
THE DUCK AND THE JUG FOR SALE £75
THE FOX AND THE GOLDEN BELL FOR SALE £150
If you are interested in my work please email me here diane@dianeyoungartist.com or message me here on facebook .
Sundarbans #Seahorses
I am trying to hold back on this work in progress and not ruin it by any rash decision making.
The seahorses and the arc are collagraph print, and what appears as coral is watercolour based on the pattern made by the Sundarbans where hundreds of rivers meet the Bay of Bengal.
Sense of Place : Venacher Stag
This is an original collagraph print made from a combination of my photo of Venacher Loch in the Trossachs placed as textures of the trees and the loch within in the form of a rutting stag. These beasts naturally inhabit both the Highlands and the North Lowlands of Scotland. We were there in 2017 visiting friends when we went to Venacher Loch for a walk and a lochside supper when I took the photo; such a serene and beautiful location.
Greedy #Rooks on Dartmoor. Fun with the WordPress new editor!
I have just managed to get totally distracted by this new editor, trying out all the new blocks for text, images, galleries, calendars and lots more. I was supposed to be checking out some photos on my PC of a trip to Dartmoor a few years ago as I want to integrate a Dartmoor scene with a rook profile.
Now I am back on track I have popped some photos in the new editor’s gallery below. Just click to enlarge and get a close up of these Rooky characters. As we drove over the moors the cheeky rooks were waiting in the pull-ins up on the hills and making begging noises for bits of sandwich! It was a great photo opportunity for me. They are such characterful birds.
Walking on Dartmoor 
Dartmoor 
Dartmoor 
Begging noises 
Don’t mess with this guy!
Me & My Shadow
I love macro photography; the great reveal of these photos once transferred to my PC never fails to amaze me. This shield bug needed rescuing from our porch after perching on a fairy light.
#Ammonite #Fossil #Collagraph Plate
Some process images. I have cut through the drawing to directly carve out my mountboard plate. Glue is applied with cocktail sticks to make the lines which will be highlights or white; a very absorbing task! The larger image is where I am peeling the mountboard for the required texture. This is then sealed with button polish, dried, inked and printed.
Click Here to find the result!
Reviewing your own artwork
It is hard isn’t it! Some decisions on composition are really easy but at other times they are really hard. I mean there are potentially so many variables, and reviewing the results, deciding on their worthiness is often really difficult.
Sometimes you want a certain detail left in, you think this detail is a good idea! But for some reason this great idea does not work. We want the design to hold together well and be more than the sum of its’ parts. Sadly this can mean letting go of something we really would have preferred stayed as part of the composition.
I had wanted a back drop and small details (telegraph poles) in these small collagraphs (5″ x 7″); but small details on small collagraphs made with mount board do not work so well. Possibly because working so small is not correct with this medium, or perhaps I need to hone my technique. I do like a graphic look, that is with a white background and sharp profile. I mean what am I doing creating something that does not fit with what I like in the first place!?
Truly I am quite new to the printmaking medium. And I should experiment, but my final print below is a lesson in the “less is more” motto.
Having taken out the small details that are not working, and also the backdrop, this is the final result which I feel works best.
What do you think?
Keeping Track of Failures!
Yesterday I was watching a Brian Cox programme about the discovery of treatments for diseases; catching up on things recorded last summer! Brian Cox was describing how these days our investment in research is focused only on the cure or solution to the problem, ie discarding any negative results as irrelevant. The unfortunate problem with this is that scientists and researchers are not being given free rein to discover things by accident when inadvertent discoveries can also lead to the creation of useful results.
The permanent dye for the colour mauve was accidentally discovered by a scientist (William Henry Perkin) who was trying to create a synthetic quinine which is a cure for malaria. He made his future wealth out of producing this dye particularly after Queen Victoria wore a silk gown dyed with his creation mauveine. He failed in his original task, yet this discovery was deemed to be a success!
Essentially, both successes and also the detailed records of failures can be of great use to other research in the future.
The same could be applied to artistic endeavours couldn’t they?
I do divide my failures into those which are possibly useful to refer to in the future and rubbish definitely to be binned! It just would not be possible for me to store everything especially since switching from painting to printmaking. Photos of work in progress and experimentation can make it easier to store information, or even just notes.
I hung onto this trio of tom cats below which was created simply to test a printmaking texture. It was useful yesterday in convincing me to use a particular texture for some mountains on a new piece I am working on at the moment.
Funny Little Egg for Easter
Happy Easter weekend! Sometimes it is better just to go for it and create a small piece of art especially if you are procrastinating a bit, so here is my funny little egg print.
Diane Young Artist 