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This week I made a new monotype plate with liquid rubber and tested it. I also ventured into using color, and yesterday I tried doing a monotype on location at a Paint the Town event.
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I sprayed a PVC panel with two coats of Rust-oleum LeakSeal. I rolled up a thin coat of ink on the entire plate and printed it to see what the texture pattern of the plate was. That’s the upper left image. The other images test varying thicknesses of ink and amounts of wiping and applying ink with a brush. For the last image I brushed the remaining ink on the plate with a wet brush to see what would happen. I’ll need to experiment some more with this plate to see what I can do with it. I like the textures from the sprayed on surface.
Sintra PVC 3mm 1/8 inch foamboard sprayed with 2 coats of White Rust-oleum LeakSeal Flexilbe Rubber Coating, Sax Arts & Craft Black Block Printing ink on Strathmore Vision Watercolor paper 6×9 inches (15.2×22.9 cm). Each image is 5×7 inches (12.5×17.8 cm).
Next I experimented with coloring one of the tests. I scanned the image and imported it onto my iPad into the Sketch Club app, set the blend mode to Multiply, and brushed on some color in a layer underneath.
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The next day I tried printing color.
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I did this in two passes on dry paper. The first one (color) done with acrylics on a Gelli plate. The second one (black) done with watersoluble black printing ink on a Saran Wrap membrane plate. This test showed me that I could print a second color without disturbing the first.
Fabriano Hot Press Watercolor paper 8×10 inches (20.3×25.4 cm), Golden Open acrylics, and Sax Arts &Crafts Black Block Printing ink. Image is 5×7 inches (12.5×17.8 cm).
So, the next day I tried printing multiple colors in multiple passes.
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I took the reference photo for this at the Oregon Garden. I used Glad Press’N Seal plastic kitchen wrap smoothed out on a clear clipboard as a plate surface. It has a slight texture to it. This one took about an hour. I did it in five passes. I first did the blue background. Then I did some greens. Next some darker greens. Next the darkest colors and some added light greens, and finally the white on top.
Fabriano Hot Press Watercolor paper 8×10 inches (20.3×25.4 cm), Golden Open acrylics, and Dr. Ph. Martin Pen White ink. Image is 5×7 inches (12.5×17.8 cm).
Call me crazy, but I wanted to try doing a monotype on location at a Paint the Town event. I sat in my car with the back seats folded down. I sat with my back against the front passenger seat and my feet pointing out towards the open tailgate with all my stuff around me. A friend happened by just as I was finishing and took my picture.
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The clipboard was my plate. It was covered with Glad Press-N Seal plastic wrap. I did a quick crayon sketch on transparency film first, flipped it mirror image and attached it to the back of the clipboard with tape to use as a reference.
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The black lines are on a transparency so I could flip the image and the color is on a white piece of paper behind the transparency. I had to figure out this alternative because normally I would use my printer to print a photo and I couldn’t travel with my printer. I transferred a photo from my camera to my iPad and traced the shapes with a black wet-erase pen onto the transparency. Quick and easy. I then flipped the transparency over, placed a piece of white tracing paper on top of it and clipped the two to my clear clipboard, held it up to bright daylight from inside the car and colored the shapes while looking at the scene in front of me.
I drew registration marks on the plate so I could line up the paper to the same spot for each paint transfer. I lost track, but I must have done over a dozen paint transfers rubbing the back of the paper with a rubber roller. I worked from light colors to dark colors. The paper had a 5×7 inch mask made from an overhead transparency glued with Tacky Glue to the surface.
Here is the finished piece. It took about an hour to do.
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I really like the texture from the Press-N Seal. You can see the dot pattern in the mountains and sky. You can’t get that look any other way. I had a good time. It felt good to get out on location and try something challenging and new.
Jim
