A Simple Guide to Botanical Monoprint Collage

ADHESIVES

Know your adhesives. There’s a wide variety for collage. Nori paste, matte medium, mod podge, gel medium, soft gel medium and gloss medium are all good options, not to mention the plain old glue stick. What’s a collage artist to do? First of all, there’s no exact right or wrong. Just make sure it’s acid free.

Experiment to see what kind of a surface texture you want. Do you like a more shiny surface? Gel medium and gloss medium are your friends.

Prefer a mat surface? You can use the gel medium to glue your papers because it’s stickier, and coat it with a matte medium.

Mix and match: I love a combination of nori paste and soft gel medium. It can help build up surfaces and leaves a lovely mat finish. Combined, the two also allow a longer drying time

PAPERS

The sky is the limit. If you can stick it down and cover it with a medium to preserve it, you can use it. This applies to very delicate papers: rice paper, tissue paper, deli paper, pattern papers, and aged papers. Tissue paper, when placed over prints can achieve a transparent effect, great for layering lines, text or drawing over botanicals.

To mount your collage on a panel, build it on rice paper. The rice paper reduces the amount of paper you have to glue down. Make your collage about 1/4” bigger so that you have a little wiggle room. Trim later.

If you’re framing the collage, my favorite substrate is Arnhem 1618 printmaking paper by Speedball. Thick and luscious.

Mixed media papers are good substrates, particularly Strathmore Heavyweight mixed media pads.

CUTTING TOOLS

I keep several pairs of scissors around; I’m prone to losing them beneath collage fodder. My favorite brand is Fiskars; most are more than 10 years old; they last and last.

X-acto knives: I use number 1 and have 2 on the table. Keep a box of #11 replacement blades on hand. Don’t cheap out: a miscut could cost you a valuable botanical print!

COMPOSITION

Palette: Have a general idea of the colors and kind of prints you want to work with. I stick pretty closely to this and then add in a few "wild card” colors to help the composition pop.

Lay out your composition before you glue it down. Use your cell phone to take shots of different compositions. It’s a great way to get some distance and save yourself time scraping off papers!

BRUSH AND GLUE TIME

I use inexpensive 1” paint brushes to brush on the glue or medium. Keep a water container handy to place brush in between prints. I brush adhesive on the print and the substrate. After I glue down a piece of print, I put a sheet protector on top and roll over it with a brayer so that the glue is evenly distributed and the print is flat.

Once I’ve completed the collage, or I’m done for the day, I sandwich it between 2 sheets of mixed media paper and weigh it down with the biggest art books I’ve got, making sure to cover the whole surface. Leave it overnight.

FINISHING

If you mount your collage on a panel, trim the edges with a sharp x-acto knife.

To do this: place your cradle board collage side down on a clean cutting mat.

Press one hand down on the back of the cradle board and with the other, take your x-acto knife and place it next to the edge of the cradle board. Carefully trim excess paper, making sure not to cut into the wood.

When you’ve trimmed the edges, turn your collage right side up and check for rough edges.

You can lightly sand these rough bits with a fine grade sanding paper or sanding block. Make sure that your trimmed edges are flush with the board.

For either panel or paper, finish your collage with an acrylic varnish to seal it. Use at least 1 coat. I like Liqutex Acrylic varnish because it’s not an aerosol spray and doesn’t have a discernible smell.