Des mots plein la tête (7 x 6 inches), a color variation intaglio print, printed « à la poupée ».

I recently spent a month at Atelier Glypto, a small print workshop run by l’Association des Artistes de LaSalle, working out various printing and inking techniques such as collagraphs, monotypes and colour printing intaglio copper plates « à la poupée ».

I had editioned the intaglio print Des mots plein la tête in black and, as I wanted to do color variation proofs, I opted to ink the intaglio copper plate « à la poupée ». To this effect, I applied inks of different colours, in this particular case burnt sienna, raw sienna and paynes grey, selectively to different parts of the single copper plate, which was then printed in a single pass through the press. Each coloured ink was applied with a small dabber made up of tarlatane, called a dolly, or « poupée » in French.

The use of colour gives this intaglio print a very different mood, all the while using the very same copper plate as for the black editioned proof (see December 20, 2009).