Monday 12 November 2007

The Experimental Process

Geometric

When I was in Victoria last March (for the Pacific Festival of the Book), I picked up a monoprint kit (with frosted mylar "plates," a range of papers, and instructions) from Alesha Davies Fowlie: it's taken me until this past weekend to actually play around with it.

Given I want to incorporate monotypes in My Past Life, I figured I had better start learning.

Between Alesha's notes, some Google searches, and the wonderful book Monotype: Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking by Julia Ayres, I managed to create five small prints, using both watercolour paints and pencils.

Both dishwashing soap and gum arabic were used to assist in getting the colour off the frosted mylar and onto the soaked and blotted paper, and several different papers (including some old watercolour pads I had in my collection): I thought I'd play around a bit to see what worked best for me.

Of the five prints I created, I got two that I'm rather pleased with: the one at the top of this entry riffs off a photograph I took at last month's FlickrMeet.

I used gum arabic as the release agent here, and my watercolour tray. In the past, I've used solid watercolours (I've got an old Grumbacher set), but I can see where ones in a tube would be better suited for monotypes.

The second one I quite like is a sketch using watercolour pencils, dry, on detergent-coated mylar: I used the opportunity to create a study for one of the pieces I plan on knitting as part of My Past Life.

1 comment:

  1. I have just discovered your blog(s) through Dennis Yuen's and thought I would just drop you a line to say how much I am enjoying reading about your various projects!

    I have subscribed to your feed so I look forward to following your progress!

    Diane

    ReplyDelete

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