Magnolia and Birches Monoprint

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I’m experimenting today with different monoprint techniques. I used a sanded plexiglass plate for this one. Previously I’ve been using overhead transparencies. The plexiglass is sanded so that it can hold watercolor and watersoluble colored pencils.

I worked from a photo reference. When you make a print, the image is reversed. So, before starting I flipped the photo into a mirror image on my iPad. Here is the photo before I flipped it.

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I painted on the plexiglass like I would on paper using a brush to mix the watercolor paint with a little water before brushing it on. I started with the blue sky and then added some light brown at the tree line and in the foreground. Next I added some greens and darker browns. I let that dry and then worked with watercolor pencils. Finally, I used Q-Tips and a fiber tipped waterbrush to erase out the white areas for the trees and blossoms. Here is what the finished plate looked like.

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I liked the look of the image on the plate. So, I did a high resolution scan of it just in case I later wanted to make a computer printout.

Next I put together my printing setup. I taped a piece of white paper to a backing board and taped the plate face up onto the paper. I then taped a spacer board at the top so I could anchor the printing paper at the same height as the plate to keep paper flat.

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Not all of the pigments transferred off the plate. So the print looks paler than the plate. It did, however, hold detail well, and I like the texture of the print.

Hand sanded plexiglass plate 8×10 inches (20.3×25.4 cm), Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media 9×12 inch (23×30.5 cm) paper, Daniel Smith watercolor, Albrecht Dürer Faber-Castell and Caran D’Ache Supracolor II watercolor pencils, Arteza Real Brush pens, Arteza flat waterbrush, Q-Tips, and Caron D’Ache fiber tipped waterbrush.

Jim