Traditional and digital art

Watercolor and Trace Monotypes

Watercolor and Trace Monotypes

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This week I experimented with using watercolor on a membrane plate and with doing trace monotypes. These techniques have a long history. Degas did a lot of monotypes as did some of the other Impressionists. I particularly like Degas’s landscapes and his use of pastel over monotype.

Degas Landscape Monotypes

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Degas Pastel Over Monotype

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These examples are from a PDF of an exhibit of Degas’s monotypes at MoMa.

I did a landscape using watercolor painted straight from the tube onto a Glad Press’n Seal kitchen wrap plate and transferred to antique laid paper.

River Trees 1

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I wet the paper before I did the transfer and used too much water. The watercolor bled and smeared. So, I tried it again using damp watercolor paper.

River Trees 2

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That worked much better. It’s amazing what a difference paper can make.

Trace monotypes are done by carefully placing a thin piece of paper over an inked plate and drawing on the back of the paper to transfer the ink to the front of the paper. I takes a delicate touch and you can’t lay your hand on the paper as you draw or it will make a large mark. It doesn’t work well with thick watercolor paper as the paper doesn’t flex enough to create a thin line.

The way to do trace monotypes on thick paper is to work in reverse. You draw on the back of a thin, flexible inked plate placed over a piece of paper. You have to find the right combination of plate material and ink. After several tries, I found the best combination was to roll a 50/50 mix of black Holbein Acryla Gouache and Golden Retarder onto a Glad Press’n Seal plate taped to an 1/8 inch thick foamcore frame. The frame keeps the ink off the paper until you press it down while drawing. I placed a reference sketch drawn on thin tracing paper on the back of the plate to use as a guide. Usually you have to flip your reference sketch when you print in the traditional way because you are working on the front of the plate. In this case the reference can be the right way around because you are working on the back of the plate. It is much easier to compose the right way around. Also, using tracing paper allows you to trace multiple subjects from multiple sources as I did here combining two figures from two different Degas paintings.

Trace Monotype

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After printing, I noticed that the ink left on the plate formed a negative. So, I printed it too.

Trace Monotype Negative

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As I mentioned above, Degas often added pastels on top of his monotypes. I first tried pastel over a test trace monotype just to see how it works.

Pastel Over Monotype

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Pastel is not my favorite medium. The colors are too limited and the finished work can be easily damaged. Instead I decided to paint over the Ballet Dancers trace monotype with gouache.

Ballet Dancers

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The gouache is transparent enough (if I add a little water) that the black ink dots and lines show through. I’m really pleased with how this turned out. I learned a lot this week. It pays to copy the masters.

Jim