Assignment One – Part One Introducing Monoprints

06/05/15

Assignment One – Part One Introducing Monoprints

Reflection against Assessment Criteria Points:

• Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills
  I initially struggled with the water-based inks, particularly the black, to make a strong enough print. I have since read, that dampening the paper may help with this. Something to try. I am enjoying the design aspect of printmaking and composition, I feel has been a strength in previous OCA courses. I have been keen to try as many techniques as I can and think I am starting to get a feel for what to use when. My observational skills are improving all the time from my working from life in other classes such as life drawing and portrait painting.
• Quality of Outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas
  I seem to be going through a cycle of having the ideas but not being able to achieve them, to gaining more skill and losing the ideas, to just beginning to realise some ideas and being more imaginative. In Drawing 1, I was pushed to loosen up and be more expressive, through Painting 1, there was a distinct journey where my ideas were becoming more creative and although not always as I envisaged started to make sense and become more of a conversation with the viewer rather than just a pretty picture. Here, I am loving the sense of not being in control, even though I think I am, yet I can not truly determine what will appear when a print is taken. I think my presentation has improved dramatically throughout the beginning of the course. I am of course slightly glossing over the last mishap in Project 4.
• Demonstration of Creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice
  I think choosing to do this course was the best thing I could have done. Printmaking is new to me and as such, I feel I can try anything and just see what happens. When I have time, as in the Still Life/Abstract in Project 4, I felt that the possibilities were endless and learnt such a lot. I don’t think I could have produced the other three works in one day, without the 2 days I spent on one. I feel my creativity will develop much further with trying printmaking and it will influence my painting and drawing and vice versa.
• Context – reflection, research, critical thinking (learning log)
  I have always kept a comprehensive learning log, sometimes, I have been told, too much so. Therefore, I have tried to be more succinct in what I write and try to illustrate points with images. I have found the research more challenging as I am not as familiar with printmakers as painters for example. However, the more I research, the more I see the cross-over between artists and that I probably know more of them than I think.

Overall, I am really enjoying learning something new, especially as I can draw on what I have already learnt. I didn’t realise the versatility that printmaking gives and am looking forward to trying out more new techniques.

 

Work Selected for Assignment One

Task 1

Print 16 Added a little more ink, re-rollered and scratched back into it, added extra blobs of ink

Print 18 Rollered with existing ink on previous plate, making overlapping squares in opposite corners, random scratch marks

Print 2 Reworked plate, more tone on jug – need to adjust black ink consistency

Further painted prints of figure -Figure A Print 3

Further painted prints – Landscape Tree Print 2

Task 2

Positive mask used with blue oil based ink

Negative mask print in red oil based ink

 

Task 3

Two coloured monoprint using positive and negative masks in contrasting colours. A3 print on A2 medium weight cartridge paper.

Two coloured monoprint – A4 size printed on A3 newsprint

Man-made objects and solvent on A3 newsprint

Ghost print on A3 newsprint

A4 print on A3 white cartridge paper.

A4 print on A3 white cartridge paper

Landscape built from layered ink and textures. A4 print of landscape on A3 cartridge paper.

Two coloured, positive and negative masked print with back drawing in black ink

Monochrome monoprint of back drawing palm trees

Back drawn view from my window 2

Back drawn view from my window 3 – A3 newsprint

 

Task 4

Final Print for Project 4

Project 4 – Portrait – painted plate and back drawing

Project 4 Life Study Final

Project 4 Landscape – final print

 

Research Point: Contemporary Printmakers who Heavily Rely on Texture

Research Point: Contemporary Printmakers who Heavily Rely on Texture

Find some contemporary printmakers who rely heavily on texture in the prints. What sort of textures have they used to create effects? How well has it worked?

I found a few contemporary artists who predominantly use texture in their work, although most seem to make abstract images.

Anne Moore: on studying some of her work, I can see she uses or re-uses found objects and scraps for her prints.  Bubble wrap is readily identified,torn paper and cloth, metal washers and gaskets etc. these all produce introduce impressions and shapes and give her work an originality and allure.

Liz Perry: Liz obtains a lot of her inspiration from nature and uses leaves, bark etc to create texture in her work. She makes monotypes, some of which she combines with block printing. Her work is abstract but gently so and definitely has its roots in the natural world. The images produced are colourful and full of texture from the natural objects she gathers.

Lynn Bailey: Again using naturally found objects such as leaves and various flora, Lynn creates some abstract and some more realistically grounded images. With her base painted or transferred images such as landscape or wildlife, the natural masks used add texture and pattern to her final prints. These work well, however I am more drawn to the pure textural abstract images with their richness of colour and pattern.

 

Research Point: Printmakers who use Back-drawing

Research Point: Printmakers who use Back-drawing

Find some printmaking artists who use back drawing.  Examine how they use it and evaluate it. Does it work well? What can you learn from it?

I struggled to find anyone at first because printing is all new to me. I decided to have a look through some fellow students’ blogs to at least come up with some names and go from there. Funnily enough, once I found a way in, I began unearthing more artists by myself.

One of these was William Kentridge, a South African artist who makes monoprints, lino and wood block cuts and engraving, along with drawing and film making. He has a background in theatre sets which appears to have inspired his Pit series of monoprints. These entail images of three-sided set-like structures, (sets also known as pits apparently) with figures in a sort of tableau. Some of these appear to have back drawing and some not. However, the most striking series of monoprints which certainly seem to have copious amounts of back drawing is the Thinking Aloud series.  He doesn’t appear to have a website of his own, although is mentioned on many therefore I hope the image below is not infringing any copyright.

Thinking Aloud Monoprint by William Kentridge

The original monoprint appears to have been worked into in a progression of prints and developed further. This has produced a set of lively marks and become a tangle of scratchings and “thoughts” as the title implies. I think this puts across the message, culminates in illustrating the mass of thoughts a human brain produces yet keeps the base print image dominant. From this I can learn the freedom that this method and/or technique can give an artist yet still keep an anchor in the original.

Another artist, that although was mentioned by other students, I kept coming across in my searches was Paul Gauguin. I didn’t realise that he was known for his mono-types as well as his paintings, yet there seems to be many examples – I’m glad I’ve found some. The ones I found are mainly based on the Tahitian women.

Paul Gauguin, Crouching Tahitian woman, 1901 – 1902, traced monotype print.

“Crouching Tahitian Woman” above is clearly back-drawn, with the outline defined and the dark tones of the shadows hatched. This may be considered a more traditional method and enhances the darkness of the shadows and adds some texture.

Eve (The Nightmare) 1899–1900 monotype by Paul Gauguin

“Eve (The Nightmare)” is a more complex example and works well to give the scene some menace. The colours are limited so the back drawing gives more definition to the subject and composition, assisting the viewer’s eye around the image. The back drawn marks work nicely with the softer monoprint textures to give variety of tone.

Some other artists I looked are Ann Symes and Pawel Kwiatkowksi of which examples can be viewed on my Pinterest board https://uk.pinterest.com/ginaemmett/monoprints-with-back-drawing/

 

Project 4: Textured and Combination Monoprints

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.

 

After natural masks print pulled – plate inked with red and new natural masks placed

Newsprint has been used to press the leaves into the red ink

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.

Ink changed to red to print over the yellow to give more of an orange tint

Showing the red overprint with masks removed

A second pull with the masks removed to lessen the borders

Another layer of negative masks in a darker brown, with some fern to add texture to the pot

A sheet of newsprint to press down the leaf and lessen the impact of the darker brown

Leaf mask removed and ready to print the next layer

Print taken – the negative shape of the masks has been used to add a geometric shape to the print

Showing printing plate with masks removed

Whilst masks were removed took a print on newsprint from the plate

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.

Ghost print from brown paper print as base plus negative pot masks

Further negative mask in yellow

Building layers in red – masks carefully placed

More texture with leaf masks in two colours

More carefully placed block of colour with leaf mask

Leaf mask in yellow – balancing out colours, tone and shapes

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.

Preparing the plate

Transferring the scaled up image onto the reverse of the printing paper ready for back drawing

After the painted print had been taken, the plate was prepared with black ink for back drawing

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.

 

 

Back drawing straight onto the paper on black inked plate

The print lifted after back drawing, the light tones lifted out of the print plate

A fresh print using the dark tones only from the print plate

Second layer print with back drawing in yellow

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.

Masking off the painting sky with torn hand-made paper

Masking off the ground and using found objects as masks for added texture

Adding a yellow glaze layer to add to the colour

Using the tree mask to mark out the shapes as a back drawing into the printing plate

Mask removed and shape revealed

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

Project 3: Back-drawing

26/04/16

Back-drawing

Another variation is back-drawing. This is where a design is impressed on the back of the paper, often with a pencil, after it has been laid over an inked printing plate. The result is a soft drawing where it is possible to achieve a considerable amount of detail.

Back drawn design on the reverse of the printed paper – A4 print on A3 cartridge paper

 

 

I decided to create a positive and negative masked two colour print of the palm tree. I then lifted the paper, cleaned and re-inked the plate with black ink. Re-registering the paper I then used a positive mask to draw round the shape of the tree and then added smaller palms in silhouette to give an impression of distance as a back drawing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two coloured, positive and negative masked print with back drawing in black ink

 

The result of the back drawing showed a light print of the black ink in places. The outline of the tree was strong although, the silhouettes were a little subdued. I did not notice straight away, however, that the large palm tree back drawing was the reverse of the print. I had forgotten that the positive mask I drew around should have been turned over to match the print. Although, I must say, in retrospect I quite like the balance it gives the shape on the finished print. This is something to be aware of and remember if this method is repeated. It was a happy accident in this case though.

 

 

 

 

Palm tree and smaller trees – back drawing

 

I tried again just using a fresh sheet of paper and black ink on the plate. The larger tree was again drawn from the outline of the positive mask, with a little detail added to the leaves and trunk. The smaller trees were drawn free hand with a few birds in flight for good measure. I kept this as a simple line drawing to see what the effect of the single ink colour would be.

 

 

 

 

 

Monochrome monoprint of back drawing palm trees

 

I quite like this result as there is some random texture from the solidly inked plate that softens the outline made with a sharp pencil. I decided to leave this as is – less is more this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back-drawing from Life

Now you are familiar with the back-drawing technique, try working on the spot by taking a prepared plate with you.

As it was, yet again, pouring with rain outside (not to mention sleet and hail stones) I decided to work from inside looking out of the French doors in to the garden. My apple tree must be the most drawn tree ever!

Back drawing from life – view from the French doors

 

Going freehand with this one, I thought I would use textural marks as well as outline drawn in pencil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back drawn view from my window 1

 

Very disappointed when I lifted the paper! I admit I got a little carried away with the inks on this one. I tried to place the ink colours roughly in position all in one go. Consequently there is a gap in the middle and the free rollering has made it difficult to see the drawing. I’ll put that one down to experience!

 

 

 

 

 

Back drawing from life number two

 

 

In my second attempt, I moved the view along a little bit to the other side of the apple tree which was slightly less chaotic, yet still had some interesting textures.

 

 

 

 

 

Back drawn view from my window 2

 

This time I decided to follow the advice in the brief ie working with lighter inks first. I inked the printing plate with yellow, laid the print paper down and drew the previous design onto the paper. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of this stage. It did work but was a little indistinct because of the colour. I wiped the plate and laid down some red. I re-registered the paper and traced over the original drawing for the foreground objects. Lifting the print, I thought it was worth re-drawing everything with varying pressures. This worked really nicely and I like the way the main objects are strong and the background is more faint as it should be. I also like the areas where unintentional pressure on the red ink has given the impression of extra foliage and leaves on the tree.

 

 

Back drawn view from my window 3 – loose drawing on A3 newsprint

 

 

I thought I would try again on different paper from white cartridge and made a looser drawing on newsprint to see what the thinner paper would produce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back drawn view from my window 3 – A3 newsprint

 

 

 

I actually re-used the print plate from the previous back drawing but replaced the print paper with the newsprint. The yellow ink has been lost in the previous print so just the red has printed. It is difficult to see in the photograph but in reality the previous back drawing may just be seen. With re-using the plate and using the thinner paper, the line is much finer and less deep in colour.

 

 

 

 

What is the quality of the line you have printed? 

As noted above.

Can you think of ways in which this method might be used for sketching or making spontaneous drawings?

I would think that this may be great as an under-drawing or painting to continue to be worked into – particular with pastel, either oil or chalk. I understand that Degas used a similar method as a base for many of his pastel paintings. I’m not sure I would necessarily think of this first to make spontaneous drawings due to the preparation required, however, it may be a great way of taking an image further into the unexpected.

Try another print of this type without re-inking your printing plate. Did you notice any change in the quality of the line?

See last print above.

 

Project 3: Variations using Masks and Multi-Colours

20, 22, 25/04/16

Variations using Masks and Multi-Colours

Now you have started to explore masks and printing from a printing plate you can begin to experiment. Try out some new ideas using masks, layers of colours, painted printing plates and so on.

Here I followed instructions on how to create a three colour masked monoprint. It uses two colours with a negative mask for positive prints and one positive mask to give a negative print as a background colour.

Three coloured monoprint – with additional overprinted without the masks

 

 

I was disappointed with the initial result as the yellow was too far over, although I purposely was not trying to print each colour on top of the other. I then tried overprinting with both negative and positive masks removed. This wasn’t really what I was after but it’s good to play and experiment and I can’t expect it always to be effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three coloured monoprint using 2 negative masks and 1 positive on A2 white medium weight cartridge paper

 

 

After the first attempt I decided to just follow the instructions and see what happened. I also decided to use the medium weight cartridge paper again as it is more of a brilliant white and thought it would look good against the mix of colours. This worked well and although the yellow is a little over, it still looks pleasing to me.

 

 

 

 

 

Varied Masks of Natural and Found Objects, Textures and Solvents

The idea here was to experiment with textures and colours to achieve unusual and creative effects in the monoprints. This was a huge learning curve of how to use found objects as masks, consistency of inks, colours, papers and printing pressure.

Man-made objects and solvent on A3 newsprint

 

My first attempt is an A4 print on A3 newsprint. Using red and yellow oil inks overlapping to mix colours on the print itself. Coiled string, bubble wrap and gauze were used as masks, ink was lifted out with a brush handle and solvent was dripped and splashed onto the print plate to achieve different effects. Several layers of printing were used to produce this and this is evidenced by pure colour on white, and the colour beneath coming through in places.

 

 

 

 

Ghost print on A3 newsprint

 

 

As there was still a substantial amount of ink on the plate after the above print, I decided to take a ghost print on a fresh sheet of newsprint. This was still quite distinct and the drops of solvent show up even better almost like bubbles with less ink with which to print. The bubble wrap is also much more obvious as I would guess the top layer of yellow ink was spent in the first completed print and the bottom red layer has remained. This was a fascinating experiment and was worth noting the results for how to achieve effects in the future.

 

 

 

A4 print on A3 white cartridge paper.

 

Using two colours of yellow and blue with layering producing green as the third. Again using man-made masks of gauze and bubble wrap, with natural masks of dried sliced orange. Drops of solvent, although not so much as before, disperse the inks letting the pure colours come through. Again, the ink was scratched into with a brush handle giving nice clear squiggle patterns. I was a little disappointed that the orange slices didn’t really show as much definition as I’d hoped.

 

 

 

 

A4 print on A3 white cartridge paper

 

This time, still using two colours I decided to use blocks of pure colour and join them with the masks and patterns in the design. I used a small piece of fabric mesh, bubble wrap (the same piece as used before which had ink on it so printed itself), some solvent drops and a squiggly pattern made by a brush handle again. I have reused many of the same methods and masks, however, it is fascinating to me how different each print still is.

 

 

 

 

 

A4 print on A3 white cartridge paper

 

Here a yellow layer was inked first with a some large drops of solvent attempting to make some flower like shapes. A second layer of blue with more drops of solvent, trying to vary the sizes and dragging some of these drops to make stems. Some scratching into blue layer for texture and added organic shapes. This illustrated the unpredictable nature of printing as although I was trying to create a flower like image, it did begin to resemble underwater coral or water based plant life. I think the colours used also contributed to this.

 

 

 

Using What has been Learnt to Create a Landscape

When you can see the possibilities of this process, make a print depicting a landscape or town scape using the print of different items.

This was a fun task and involved some working into the inks with a rag, cotton bud and using layers of colour to create others. Even though this was a landscape, I used both natural and man-made items to create shapes with a little solvent to give blurred “cauliflowers”. I managed to build some tone into the image although it could have had more and it is more expressive than realistic. Having said that, it sort of works.

Landscape built from layered ink and textures. A4 print of landscape on A3 cartridge paper.

 

Project 3: Two Coloured Masked Monoprints

18 & 19/04/16

Two Coloured Masked Monoprints

In this project you will continue to use your masks from the previous section, both positive and negative, to make a two-coloured print.

First attempt at two coloured monoprint – lots of lessons! Oil based ink on cartridge paper.

Method of two colour print:

• Select two contrasting ink colours
• Select which colour for each positive and negative print
• Have two clean printing plates ready
• Ink one plate with positive print colour and the second with negative print colour to suit mask size (A3)
• Lay negative mask on colour that will have the positive print (blue)
• Lay positive mask on colour that will have the negative print (yellow)
• Take negative print first (background colour yellow), lay printing paper over mask, ensuring the registration creases are prominent from the plate
• Take the print and carefully remove
• Line up the printed paper on the positive blue inked printing plate correlating the registration marks with the edge of the plate
• Take the print and carefully remove the paper

All seemed well except for a couple of crucial points:

• I was not at all sure how to accurately line up the negative and positive masks on their corresponding printing plates so that the image would match – so they didn’t by some way
• I forgot to clean up the inked edges before printing

As the positive and negative masks were so out of alignment that I was definitely going to have to try again, I removed both masks and reprinted both colours on top, again using the registration marks so at least the ink would correlate. Initially, I thought “what a mess!” although since, in a strange way, I quite like the effect although it could be somewhat neater. Anyway – take two…

The main issue to address was the alignment of the negative and positive masks on their corresponding printing plates. I decided to mark the A3 paper size on the reverse of each plate with masking tape so I could align the top right corners of the negative mask and a piece of A3 paper on the plate that would be for the positive mask. The main problem was placing the positive mask in the correct place as there were no landmarks to use. I then realised that if I tape another negative mask of the same design against the A3 markers underneath the glass printing plate, I could then align the positive mask to the negative. This would ensure that the positive and negative prints were matching – as in the below photographs before I get any more confused!

Positive Printing Plate – Masking tape underneath the printing plate, marking the top right corner to help place A3 negative mask on top.

Negative Printing Plate – Masking tape marks top right corner for A3 negative mask to be taped underneath the plate to aid positioning the positive mask.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the alignment guides were in place, I could again ink the plates with the appropriate colours and take the two coloured prints as intended.

Two coloured monoprint using positive and negative masks in contrasting colours. A3 print on A2 medium weight cartridge paper.

Second pull of two coloured monoprint using positive and negative masks in contrasting colours. A3 print on A2 medium weight cartridge paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very pleased with this attempt after such an abject disaster initially. The blue ink on the first pull could have been a bit more consistent and there are a couple of dots of blue where they shouldn’t be, but generally not too bad. The second pull, although fainter seems to have eliminated the previous two issues.

Next I reversed the colour-way for a contrasting print.

Two coloured monoprint using positive and negative masks in contrasting colours. A3 print on A2 medium weight cartridge paper.

Second pull of two coloured monoprint using positive and negative masks in contrasting colours. A3 bleed print on A3 light weight blank newsprint paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the first print, the medium weight cartridge paper was used again and positive mask (negative print) again produced a chunkier horse silhouette, which combined with the lighter positive image against the dark background, made for a more heavy-looking shape. However, on the second pull, having received my newsprint paper, the lighter weight paper slimmed down the negative print (positive mask) so much it was fairly bang on matching. This has proven my theory that for a positive mask, the thinner printing paper moulds to the contours of the shape much better.

I decided to carry on and choose another design to work on, plus being smaller ie A4 and to use the A3 newsprint as printing paper.

Two coloured monoprint – A4 size printed on A3 newsprint

Second pull of two coloured monoprint – A4 size printed on A3 newsprint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above are two prints using two colours as before but as the size was A4 printed on A3 it was less cumbersome in practice, plus using the lighter weight newsprint as the print paper, the distinction of the positive mask in particular was much more defined.

 

Graduated background of yellow and red with third colour positive print. A4 on A3 newsprint

Reworked ink on graduated background of yellow and red with third colour positive print. A4 on A3 newsprint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea here was to mix yellow into the red ink to achieve a sunset effect. This almost worked except the amount of ink at the top where the colours were mixed was more concentrated and unfortunately the neat red ink at the bottom of the print was less dense and looked a little patchy in comparison. The second print, where more of the red was added had the opposite effect as the yellow was lost.  The other issue I came across here was that the mixed colours were too thick and squishy and, as I lifted the print paper away, it also pulled off the mask as it had stuck to the print paper also. This was just an experiment and could work if more care was taken to mix the colours properly rather than relying on the roller to do this.

Lessons Learnt:

• When using larger print paper and two or more printing plates, clear all superfluous items from your workspace – trying to control the paper, align prints and avoid contamination is not helped by clutter around the area
• Forethought in preparation to register the prints and align masks on separate printing plates is key to success
• Consider appropriate paper weights for desired results
• Clean around printing plate to remove excess ink
• Think, plan, print!