Monoprinting - the penny drops (with a resounding clunk!)

I get it!  

Finally I have grasped why there is all the fuss about mono printing. 

Up to know it has been a bit of a mystery  -principally because it seemed like a lot of fuss for just one imprint.  "Why not spend time making print blocks or stencils which can be reused?" was always my query.

But now, and thanks to those lovely ladies at Design Matters (Laura and Linda Kemshall) I get it!

And thanks also to Annabel who pointed me in their direction.

So, I had a peak at some of their free videos - you can find them here.  I suggest you pop across to have a look if you are not familiar with their work - or their videos.  Their instruction is so clear.

So first up, I didn't have a piece of acylic plate.  Hmm!  But I did have a tile sample.  Not ideal, but I thought I would give it a go.

So I inked this up with some fabric printing ink that I had - principally because I just knew that ordinary acrylic would dry too quickly.  I did add some dabs of yellow heavy body acrylic though - a bit of a gamble.

I used a small decorating roller to add the ink.

Then I used tissue paper (tricky - it is so delicate, but I wanted something to use in my new sketch book).

I followed Laura's technique of taking a blank sheet of paper and drawing on it with a ball point.

I just went for it.  This leaf design borrows from one I did for my C&G course when i did screen printing with wax as a resist.

I love the plate (tile!) when the tissue is removed.

And again when I tried to take a second print, just running my hand over the tissue.

I did it twice!

And now I have some rather lovely tissue papers for use in the new sketch book.

This technique has real possibility (if you follow my blog, you will know that I love working with tissue paper).


Watch this space.