Collagraph Prints

 Once we have mastered the proportions of the face, I teach my students about collagraph print making. Ball Elementary students have done printing making in previous years, so they have used a lot of the materials before.

A collagraph is a print made from a collage of items glued to a sheet of cardboard, metal or similar flat material.  It should not be confused with ‘collatype,’ which is a type of photomechanical printing.   The collagraph is primarily used in the fine arts.   Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Georges Braque were famous practitioners.  The collagraph is a relatively modern form of printing, probably originating in the late 1800s.

To make our collagraph print, we used cardboard. Each student was asked to bring in 1 cereal box. Using the cardboard, students drew the different shapes of the face and features onto the cardboard with a pencil. They then cut out their features, assembled, and glued their self portrait onto one of the larger pieces of the cardboard. This will take about four classes. Once the collagraph was complete we were ready to print! Each student made 3 prints and mounted their favorite to be graded.