making a monotype or monoprint
seahorses. monotype. approx 14 ins tall. Vivien Blackburn
This is an old piece of work that I have on the wall in the bathroom - a monotype I did in the first year of my degree. It is actually a normal rectangle but as it's behind glass I had to take the photograph at an angle because of the reflections.
it was made by rolling out a varied mix of turquoise printing ink onto a metal plate and printing it onto the paper using an etching press (rather like an old mangle with a flat bed but rather more expensive :>( ) - inking up the whole plate with a thin layer.
It was left to dry overnight and then I made stencils, cutting and tearing newsprint freehand with no drawing to make the sea horses and weed. These were positioned on the turquoise print.
Then I rolled up the plate with a dark midnight blue and put it through the press again - where the newsprint was it remained variegated turquoise and the deep background appeared. This was the first time I'd used this technique - in fact the first printmaking I'd tried.
I really enjoy printmaking and I'm seriously wanting a little press of my own. I don't have the funds or space for a big one ........... but a little one would be fun and enable me to do more printmaking - lino, collagraphs and monotypes.
Monotypes are one offs where the image contains no repeating element. Only one print is possible.
Monoprints are one offs with a repeating element - like differently inked up collagraphs or dry point with monoprinting.
Blurb say my book is on it's way .............. I do hope the colours are ok
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Comments
printmaking is a lot of 'process' and takes as long as painting but the finished results are interestingly different. I love it but don't get much chance to do any at the moment :>(
I haven't tried any kind of printing, but the process sounds interesting. One of these days...
and Jeanette :>)
it's a process that you can manage to use without an etching press so you could easily have a go - you can either rub the printing plate hard to transfer the ink or some people recommend driving the car over it! I haven't tried that and my neighbours would probably think I was even weirder than usual!