Positive and negative masked monoprints.
Exploring paper masks to make monoprints.
Considering the ideas that Matisse used, a subject came immediately to mind. There is a photo of my husband standing victorious on top of a mountain peak in Kyrgystan, the first person ever to climb it. Using this photo I made a very rough outline sketch and then cut out a template.
Playing around with the templates and folding them I came up with ‘exercises’, which mountain climbing is all about.
Developing sketches further I ended up with a young girl doing cartwheels, suggests movement and energy. I cut out my templates and began to print, first image, ghost image and a third outline image.
While I tried to achieve a smooth uniform ink layer, in reality this didn’t happen and I have prints of varying degrees of quality. Ink to thick, to dry / wet, wrong paper, not enough pressure, air bubbles, water in my roller, it all adds to the fun of an un-predictive outcome. Having said that, I did persevere with paper experiments, and had much more success with heavier papers than I did in the previous project.
One of my favourite images is that of the final print lifted (L), however a crease in the paper template has led to a dark blue line emanating from her head! Doh! Top right I get that feeling of free fall from above. The image bottom right was printed onto Pastel paper and does actually look like a pastel drawing in hard copy.
I love this set of images on black paper, there is an almost translucent effect that the contrast between light and dark gives. The ink colour was a complete accident, I wanted white on black, but couldn’t get the green ink completely off the roller, so have ended up with a pale minty green, that none the less, is effective. The middle image – ghost print is a bit to wishy washy for me , while the final print with it’s glow at the edges, reminds me of the advert where kids had Readybrek for breakfast (sorry maybe an age give away advert!) and those 1960’s shine in the dark alarm clocks.
Taking a break I sketched a few more objects and created examples of masks that may come of use in the future.
The positive mask of the plastic flower in the vase reminds me of a curvaceous woman in a tight dress. The flower sketches in the garden give thoughts of layers of colour, but I think that is something yet to come in a future exercise.
Review project 2 – I’ve really enjoyed this project, sketching, collage, ink, printing, negatives and positives. I feel that I am beginning to understand the print process a bit more, yes I have made loads of errors no doubt, air bubbles, water on my ink plate, sticky ink fingers, but at the same time I have had the courage to return to those heavier papers that I discarded in project 1 and actually get some goodish results from using them.
BILLYDOOPRINT1 