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This week I did four monoprints. I also did a colorful plein air sketch at the annual Paint the Town potluck.
Often I don’t have much time to work on art projects. Monoprints are a fun alternative to drawing and painting and they can be made quickly and easily.
I wanted to try using a stencil to block out a large white area. Our magnolia tree is blooming. I thought I’d use one of its flowers as a subject.
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Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media 9×12 inches (22.9×30.5 cm) paper, watercolor and wet-erase pen on a sanded plexiglass plate. Image size 8×8 inches (20×20 cm).
I did this in three passes. I used a paper stencil cutout to block out the white flower on the first pass. I removed the stencil and added the black lines and some additional greys on the second pass, and I added even more darks on the final pass. Watercolor creates interesting textures on a sanded plexiglass plate, but I discovered that it is hard to get deep blacks using watercolor. I needed to try something else that would work in a single pass.
The cattails are up in our front ditch. I thought they’d make a good subject for my second try as they are mostly grey with just a few touches of deep darks.
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Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media 9×12 inches (22.9×30.5 cm) paper, watercolor and Derwent Ink Black Inktense pencil on a sanded plexiglass plate. Image size 8×10 inches (20×25 cm).
I used a flat brush to paint watercolor on the plate. I let it dry and then erased out some white areas with a wet brush and built up thick layers of dark watercolor where I wanted the darkest darks. I also added a few lines with a black watersoluble pencil. I then printed it in a single pass onto wet paper. I got the effect I was after – interesting grey textures with a few darks.
Next I wanted get a grey textured background with black lines.
I recently bought a few sheets of frosted acetate. I used a sheet on my next monoprint in place of the sanded plexiglass plate.
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Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media 9×12 inches (22.9×30.5 cm) paper, watercolor and Black Tombow Dual Brush pen on a frosted acetate stencil sheet. Transferred to paper by hand in a single pass. Image size 8×10 inches (20×25 cm).
I painted background on the acetate with watercolor and drew with a watersoluble black pen and then printed it in the usual way onto a wet sheet of paper. I’m finding that each kind of plastic has a different beading pattern. After I brushed on the background strokes, I let it dry and then I added the black lines and used a wet brush to erases out the flowers to white. This worked well, but the ink in the pen I used spread out a bit into the wet paper making a bolder line than I wanted.
My final monoprint experiments with using ink to create a black background and with using a different pen to make black lines.
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Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media 9×12 inches (22.9×30.5 cm) paper, watercolor, Master Chinese oil soot ink, fine black lines done with ZIG Cocolro pen on a frosted acetate stencil sheet. Transferred to paper by hand in a single pass. Image size 6x6inches (15×15 cm).
Well, it didn’t turn out the way I expected, but it’s interesting. I tried using a Chinese oil soot ink to get a deep black, but it didn’t transfer to the paper as a solid black. The ink must have built up on the edges of each brush stroke. Thus the look of boards in the background. I used a pointed carving tool to scratch out the white flowers and stems on the plate. The ink bled into these fine lines during the printing process and filled them. So, it ended up looking less bold than it did on the plate. The ZIG pen made nice thin black lines.
Yesterday I went to the annual Paint the Town potluck held at a farm near Stayton. Before eating I did this sketch of the backyard. Everyone else was in the air conditioned house. I braved the heat.
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Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media 9×12 inch (23×30.5 cm) paper, Sharpie Fine Point markers, Listo Black Marker pencil, and Kuretake watercolors.
Jim
