Textured and combination monoprints
Create prints which combine two or more of the techniques explored in the previous projects. Continue to use your personal objects for subject matter and explore combining several layers of mask and a variety of colour.
I began this project by exploring different textures such as paper type and application tools. Tools such as bubble wrap, paint brush, hessian, bamboo sticks, cardboard & rubbers; & paper types that included flat and textured cartridge paper, bread and butter paper and khadi paper with a 50% recycled cotton content.
While I’d used some of the papers and tools before, eg; cartridge, bubblewrap, I was interested to see what other and new effects I could create. I am still finding it difficult to get the ink to lift onto the textured papers and assume that this is an issue with the amount of pressure that I am able to apply during the printing process and / or the thickness or wetness of the ink. I am using a rolling pin, barren, hands and clothes peg as my main tools, but the results depend on both the paper type and the tool used. I’m sure that with practice that all will come true at some point in this course.
The Toolbox
I began with the toolbox, I felt a need to improve rather than discard, so arranged my tools as a still life on some hessian, (industrial likeness), made a new sketch and then tested some khadi paper with a plate inked with hessian.
The first 2 images have been lifted with damp paper from an inked plate that has had ink removed with hessian; the right hand print was made from pressing the inked hessian directly onto the plate, removing and then lifting the print onto dry khadi paper, a much preferred result and one that I used on the print below.
The inked plate was overlaid with inked hessian in shades of grey, mainly laid ad-hoc but with a nod to a tool box at the top of the image. The print was lifted onto textured 250g mixed media paper. I really liked the contrast between the colours and texture and hesitated to actually use it for the next stage, I didn’t want to ruin it!
The tools were added to the print using negative masks on different coloured inks with back drawing for the key and the text. The colours were chosen as a reference to rusty work tools and their imagined industrial past.
I continued to look at the toolbox and had varying results, but nothing that I wanted to carry forward, inspiration was lost!
I used a fork to back draw lines, textured papers and corrugated cardboard to remove ink from the plate. The only thing that inspired was the orange back drawing but I couldn’t see a way to add another another layer of mask.
Looking again at the work of Squeak Carnwarth I realise that my choice of personal objects was a bit bland so I returned to my sketchbook and a tour of the garden and its wonderful colours, purples, pinks, blues and whites of thistle, verbana, cornflowers, agapanthus, daisies and more.
The Garden
For this project I have sourced some water based printing ink, while I am finding it easier to work with, (I don’t create so much mess and its easier to clean the plates and the the tools), I am finding it hard to get a good consistency of ink, it is more fluid, less tacky than the oil based safe wash inks that I was using in the previous exercises.
With reference to my coloured sketch I tried to repeat the vibrancy on my print. I inked onto the plate using brush, sponge and cardboard and then drew onto the plate. In hindsight the ink could have been wetter and I should have removed more of the ink from the petals, they may have stood out more. I particularly liked the effect with the corrugated card, small flowers in the foreground.
In another attempt I inked the plate with the dabs of a sponge and then added and removed leaves. before adding a negative mask. Though I didn’t take this forward I do like the effect of the flower head where differing amounts of pressure with a clothes peg have been used to pick up the ink.
With a bit of playful thinking, I re-inked my plate in a similar theme and sprayed it with water. When the print was lifted I tipped the paper (250g mixed media) so that the wet ink could run around the page. Playing with masks, totally out of alignment, I added flowers and a hessian fence. I like this print, its vibrancy reflected the wonderful colours in my garden.
In my sketchbook I played around more with textures using bubble wrap, cardboard and leaves. I found a sheet of paper that I’d previously printed from the remains of an inked plate. I drew onto my plate in layers using the bubble wrap, cardboard, paint brush, bamboo stick and a foam pad and then lifted my prints. I like the finished textures and my translation from sketchbook ideas to finished print but I think that the image is a little to busy, less is more.
For my next experiment; I recently attended a watercolour pencil workshop where among other things images drawn with Inktense pencils were printed onto damp watercolour paper. Using water soluble wax crayon I tried to replicate this method. I drew onto the ink plate with the crayons and then lifted a print onto damp paper. Mmmmm. Image on the glass plate (with previously printed paper underneath) is fine. Lifted print is blobby with no defintion. Room for improvement.
I’m beginning to feel that this monoprinting is never ending and I am growing weary for ideas, maybe its just the intense heatwave that we are experiencing at the moment and the fact that the cricket isn’t going our way, TMS being my printing companion.
Leaves! Ink was lightly rollered onto a plate, then blobs of ink added with a stencil brush and then overlaid with leaves and lifted onto very damp paper. When dry, inked leaves were aligned / misaligned! with the original print. I love this, it’s my favourite so far; the colours, intense in some places, translucent in others, the masks, one out of position the other in. I don’t know, it just excites me. I feel that this chapter has not been in vain.
Increasingly I am being drawn to working ‘Degas style’, directly onto the plate. When I began this part of the course it was my least favoured exercise, but now I am beginning to understand the way that I can build layers, add colour and imagery and frustratingly lift a print that is a one off, never to be repeated, however hard I try.
Referring again to my sketches I have decided to make prints of one sketch in particular, where I draw into, take away and add to an already inked plate. I’m not sure what the flower is but I have decided to call it tulip though I know its not, wrong season.
Tulip
Left – Plate inked in red, drawn image, printed then back drawn into black ink that’s been gently rollered over the plate. Right – Black ink applied through a stencil mask then re-drawn. Khadi paper. I am intrigued to see how the black ink has lifted and interacted with the red base print.
Left and Right, Bread & Butter paper. The plate was inked in red and then black and then drawn into with a rubber, stick and corrugated card. Additional ink was added to the right plate with a paint brush (black – tulip head) and palette knife (red – stem).
If only! Prints have been lifted from the Plates (1st / 3rd Image) How amazing the inked plates look in dire comparison to the finished print. 😦
Returning to the roots of this chapter, I’ve decided to look again at negative and positive images.
Leaves and paper masks have been used along with bubblewrap for a textured background. While it’s been a relaxing exercise I feel like I’ve gone a bit backwards!
With backwardness in mind I’ve taken my thistle sketches as negative and positive prints, in two colours (first and second prints from same plate), and then back drawn into them with a third colour. A much better result, alignment slightly out, but I feel like I’ve captured the essence of my sketches and some of the skills that I have learnt to date.
Review project 4 – At times during this project I have felt totally lost, not knowing whether I’m coming or going. While I’ve had ideas in my sketchbook and head I struggled to implement the processes required and at times lost my thread, especially when it came to building up my layers of print, allowing time for inks to dry etc. Reading through my notes I have realised a need for more meticulous planning. However, despite this I feel I have gained confidence in my application and have really enjoyed building my images directly on the plate and adding back drawing. While I understand the need for masking, it’s not my favoured monoprint process.
Note: With more time – I would have liked to experiment more with oil based inks, white spirit, bleach and other harmful chemicals, salt and scrunched up fabrics and lace. I’m sure I can over time add more to this list.
BILLYDOOPRINT1 