A monoprint a day
This is my latest multi-day art practice, inspired by a class that I didn’t end up taking from Karin Otto at Waterfall Arts. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was having a bad reaction to a new blood pressure medication that I’d started (lisinopril). I just felt wretched so I couldn’t zoom in to the Monoprint Watercolor Painting class held at the end of May. I retained a curiosity about the technique so I viewed a lot of YouTube videos and came up with a workable setup. I thought I could accomplish one a day while I worked out some familiarity with the materials and ways of printing.
Here’s the setup, also showing my initial monoprint.
- Water tray (plastic lid from spinach tub) to soak paper
- Arches Text Wove sheet, approx 6 x 9″, pre-torn
- Board to use as a hard level surface for pressing
- Wooden spoon from Sushi making for pressing
- Watercolor paints and brushes
- Plate made from plexiglass or other type of clear firm acrylic. (This might be a plate from an Akua class I took a few years ago with Amanda Barrow.) The plate is coated with dish soap or gum arabic, which is allowed to dry. The coating aids in the watercolor sticking to the plate during the initial painting process.
- Pad of palette paper for squeezing watercolor directly from the tube
- Piece of wax paper to overlay on the damp paper surface prior to rubbing. This prevents the damp paper from being abraded.
- Towel to remove excess water from the soaked paper surface.
As a bonus output, I made this strip of asemic writing to try out QOR watercolor paint (the color was denim, I think). The paint was diluted with water in a fine-line applicator. Really fun, but hard to control. I need more practice with it. Definite possibilities for the monoprints.
