27/04 – 01/05/16
Taking into account the opportunities for a different size and colour range in a single monoprint, this project allows you the freedom to create prints from your own subjects and imagination which combine two or more of the techniques you have already experienced.
Try to find four contrasting subjects which will lend themselves to the different techniques… You can make several versions of the subject so that you have a selection to choose from before you send your work to your tutor.
Working through my ideas in my sketchbook helped clarify my subject’s potential for success and variety. This, together with sketches, notes and selection took a whole day and my process is detailed in my sketchbook – photos below:

Project 4 sketchbook and notes 1

Project 4 sketchbook and notes 2

Project 4 sketchbook and notes 3

Project 4 sketchbook and notes 4
As documented in my sketchbook, I finally decided to use the pot/vase/urn as the subject for my prints. Although a simple object, the creative treatment is unlimited.
Textured and Combination Monoprints – Still Life/Abstract

Printing plate and registration
As I would need to make many layers of print for my experiments, I was keen to spend time on the registration of the prints to ensure success each time. The Monoprinting Handbook on the essential reading list suggests using graph paper, marking this for various paper sizes and placing the glass printing plate on top of this. I also marked the edges of the glass, as it can slide during the printing process, this ensures everything is returned to its right place before registering the paper again. This was all time-consuming but worth every second. Masking tape was also stuck beneath the plate at the top to secure the paper with each pull.

First print with back drawing – plate re-inked with yellow
Beginning my first attempt, I tried some back drawing into yellow ink of rough leaf shapes. I was then going to use actual leaf masks to build up the texture, again in yellow.

First print with back drawing – leaves placed for textural natural masks
At this point, I forgot to remove the leaves and use their impression, and instead, attempted to use them as a positive mask. Whilst applying pressure, the fresh, green leaves bled into the paper and left unwanted leaf stains. I had to discard this paper and try again. Luckily, after preparing the new sheet of paper and removing the leaves, I noticed and remembered that I should be using the leaves’ impressions.
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After natural masks print pulled – plate inked with red and new natural masks placed
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Newsprint has been used to press the leaves into the red ink
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Leaves removed and paper re-registered to take their print in red over yellow
In the above gallery is the first pull on the fresh sheet of paper with the printing plate inked up with red and leaf masks placed ready for the next. To ensure that the leaves were pressed evenly into the ink, I laid a sheet of A3 newsprint over the plate and carefully applied pressure, revealing quite a nice print in itself. The next pull on the print paper revealed some lovely texture from the leaves in red over the yellow.
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Ink changed to red to print over the yellow to give more of an orange tint
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Showing the red overprint with masks removed
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A second pull with the masks removed to lessen the borders
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Another layer of negative masks in a darker brown, with some fern to add texture to the pot
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A sheet of newsprint to press down the leaf and lessen the impact of the darker brown
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Leaf mask removed and ready to print the next layer
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Print taken – the negative shape of the masks has been used to add a geometric shape to the print
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Showing printing plate with masks removed
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Whilst masks were removed took a print on newsprint from the plate
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Final print with additional back drawing in brown ink around positive masks
This was supposed to be the final piece, however, at the end I felt it didn’t have enough impact and I felt I had to experiment more with the shapes and printing paper.

Attempt 2 – beginning with pots rather than texture
This second attempt was going fairly well and then I noticed that the registration at the bottom of the image was going awry. I decided to abandon this and try again.

Following on from the second attempt – masks removed and a print taken
Although I did take another print with the masks removed which was really interesting, however, had begun with the brown, which I felt may dull any subsequent colours.
I did try overprinting with red and orange, however, I proved myself right regarding the colours.

Over-printed with some red and orange but would become muddy
My next thought was that I had omitted to try any other printing paper and had previously prepared an A2 sized piece of brown wrapping paper. It had been flattened under heavy books overnight as was from a roll, so it seemed a shame not to try it out.

Third real attempt at this project piece – A3 on A2 brown paper with some back drawing
Using the more matt side of the paper was interesting as it had a degree of absorbency and texture itself that the other papers didn’t. I have to admit to deepening the colours in the photo as it wasn’t showing up at all. The actual print is just a little less colour saturated but this is closer than the version that wasn’t enhanced. Rather than using any masked texture, I worked more back drawing into the image. Some, by drawing around the positive masks and some by inscribing patterns on the pots themselves eg trailing stems and leaves and geometric pattern. Again this was just not strong enough for the final project 4 piece, however attractive I found it.
I began the final version by taking a ghost print from the last inking of the brown paper print, with all masks removed. This worked surprisingly well, with the back-drawing coming out in reverse ie a white outline and included all the pattern I had drawn freehand. The colour was a pleasing mottled orange and this made a great start to this image. Unfortunately I was too carried away and forgot to photograph this clearly.
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Ghost print from brown paper print as base plus negative pot masks
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Further negative mask in yellow
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Building layers in red – masks carefully placed
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More texture with leaf masks in two colours
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More carefully placed block of colour with leaf mask
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Leaf mask in yellow – balancing out colours, tone and shapes
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Back drawing in brown giving strong outlines and a little pressure on the brown ink to unify the image
From all the experiments and previous attempts, many lessons were learnt. Some versions were pleasing but lacked boldness and strength. I tried to use bold and dark colour from the start, however, in a considered way. I think the final version has a good image, strength and balance of shapes, colour and tone. I do, however, prefer the first layout but felt I shouldn’t undo the good and begin again. I’m glad I did as this pushed me to increase my patience and consideration before ploughing on regardless.
Below are a few of the stepping stone prints taken:

Final Print for Project 4
It transpires that I totally misread the brief and I should have produced prints of four contrasting subjects not chosen just one from the four. Leaving myself just 2 days before the assignment was to be sent off to my tutor, after the initial panic, I decided to just get on with it. I had also not really considered the fourth subject so worked through ideas the previous evening to my marathon day of printing.
Textured and Combination Monoprints – Portrait
04 – 05/05/16
I decided to try to work on a portrait using the three primary colours to denote tones i.e. yellow for lights, red for mid-tones and blue for the darks, I could also use the white of the paper for the highlights which would be used sparingly as I would for a portrait painting. Using my sketchbook I drew the outlines and also the main planes of the face to give form. Using coloured pencils in the colours stated above I coloured the face, hair and hat as described. This seemed to work well in my sketchbook. To translate this in the print, I decided to paint onto the printing plate using a scaled up version of the portrait beneath the glass as a guide. Prior to this, I also took a tracing of the necessary lines as I was intended to back draw into the print to enhance the darkest shadows with black hatching.
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Preparing the plate
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Transferring the scaled up image onto the reverse of the printing paper ready for back drawing
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After the painted print had been taken, the plate was prepared with black ink for back drawing
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The lightest areas have been wiped off the plate to aid with the back drawing
I tried back drawing into the painted plate colours, however, this did not have much if any definition. I was concerned that if I covered the entire plate with black ink, that it would muddy the other colours and ruin the print. By wiping out the lightest areas of the plate, I was hoping to avoid this. The result, unfortunately, was not overly strong anyway. Looking at this print retrospectively, I feel that had I used the black over the entire the plate, I may have avoided the overly “Simpsonesque” appearance, and the black mottled ink would have given a more rugged image of the sitter. In the end, it looks like he is wearing some dodgy red spectacles and has severe jaundice! Again, had I had more time I would have learnt from this and adjusted my approach.

Project 4 – Portrait – painted plate and back drawing
Textured and Combination Monoprints – Life Study

Project 4 sketchbook and notes 1
Luckily I had put a lot of effort into the preparatory work in my sketchbook and thought over many ways of working this through. I had initially thought of working just in black and white, with inking the plate, pulling out the highlights and working into it with back drawing. However, when I came to it, I decided to back draw from the outset and if necessary, then add painting to the plate for the next pull.
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Back drawing straight onto the paper on black inked plate
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The print lifted after back drawing, the light tones lifted out of the print plate
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A fresh print using the dark tones only from the print plate
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Second layer print with back drawing in yellow
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Printing plate prepared with red ink light tones removed
The first print taken with the back drawn figure was a nice loose drawing, however, there was nowhere really to go with it. Therefore, I decided to wipe out the plate to just show the darks and print that. This came out very nicely and I was encourage enough to ink the plate with yellow and draw back into the print. The drawing did not show up but the contrast of the black and yellow was very effective. I repeated the wiping out with red ink for the darks, this was very faint. As back drawing would not have worked here, I decided to define the red further by painting on the plate. This is quite nice but has lost a lot of the spontaneity of the earlier layers. I worked into it a bit more and took another print but it didn’t improve it overall. It’s the outlining I don’t like although it didn’t really look that strong on the plate. I do however, like the hair and the hand has come out well
Whilst the red ink was still wet, I tried an over-print of the first back drawn pull – although again it didn’t really add anything. Looking at these two prints, I really struggled as to which one to select for assignment. The colour print sort of works but looks too contrived and there is no sense of the model’s environment other than the steps. The first one, however, has much more feeling and the model is integrated into the space much better. In the end I selected the colour print, purely because we were asked to produce a print of two or more combined methods, otherwise, it would have been the other one.

Project 4 Life Study Contender for Final

Project 4 Life Study Final
Textured and Combination Monoprints – Landscape

Project 4 sketchbook and notes 3
The last one of my marathon day! Again, I had done a lot of preparatory work for this and had decided to use a painting plate for the main landscape and a mask for the focal point of the tree. I had also mulled over tearing some handmade paper to use to mask the sky from the land, the layers of hedges and the pathway. This worked quite well, with the easily frayed edges of the paper giving a soft, organic edge. I tried to incorporate all the tricks of composition with a vanishing point, aerial perspective, rule of thirds with texture. Some worked well, some not so. The aerial perspective is really at the mercy of the printing process, with all that entails i.e., consistency of ink, drying times and paper absorbency. not to mention my embryonic skill level.
With the foreground, I felt that texture of the grass and stony path were important and so employed some natural and man-made masks to assist. I also played around with the sky a little, using a cotton bud and my fingers to add clouds with some purple/grey shadows. These worked quite nicely, but disappeared behind the tree in the end. The trickiest part was the tree itself, it would have been easier to use a negative mask but with all the criss-crossing branches, there would not have been a complete stencil. Mulling this over, whilst walking the dog, (along the very spot I was using for my subject), I thought the only way I could this would be to draw around a positive mask, transfer that to the printing plate using fresh paper and wipe out all of the negative shapes. This could then be printed onto the landscape print. This I did, with a little back drawing for texture. However, this was not as defined as I wanted. I then returned to the plate and painted into the tree, adding finer branches and twigs and the long shadows in a dark blue. When the paper was registered, I again worked quickly and loosely into the bark and branches.
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Masking off the painting sky with torn hand-made paper
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Masking off the ground and using found objects as masks for added texture
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Adding a yellow glaze layer to add to the colour
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Using the tree mask to mark out the shapes as a back drawing into the printing plate
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Mask removed and shape revealed
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The added painting of branches and shadows
This took a lot of careful thinking and planning before execution. I was really aware that it was now nearly 8pm and it had been an 11 hour day and that I was really tired. I had scrupulously checked my hands were clean before touching the paper and cleaned down edges all day.
On lifting the last pull of the landscape print, a big smile crossed my face – briefly! I’d not noticed the over-painting at the top edges and a few strokes of black ink had printed! I was so disappointed as, if this had not happened, I would have been thrilled with the result. (You have to bear in mind, I’m new at this so easily pleased!)

Project 4 Landscape – final print
The photo is a little dark due to fading light.
Lessons Learnt
- READ THE BRIEF PROPERLY!
- Once you’ve got the registration cracked, the creativity can flow
- Clean down all edges – the one time you don’t will be the one that you can’t repeat
- Read the brief properly
- Prepare your work station properly makes for efficiency and speed