First Monoprints: Day 1

With your printing plate in front of you begin to make patterns of colour using your ink and brushes. Use different brushes for each colour. Remember to leave some plate unpainted - this will print as white (or the colour of the paper you are using). 

What I did:

I used a plastic monoprinting plate that I had been given on the workshop I attended which was about A4 in size.

I was surprised by how very thick and tacky the ink was and when I first tried to make marks with a brush I found I could only create 'dry brush' marks. I also tried applying ink with a palette knife and my gloved fingers. The ink really didn't flow well. I tried adding some linseed oil as I didn't have any plate oil. My linseed oil was very thick and didn't really help very much. 
I tried adding some liquin (oil painting medium) because that was thinner and that worked better but I still found the ink really quite hard to handle.

I made some marks and pulled my first print onto cheap cartridge paper using my little etching press:

So far not really impressive. I did quite like some of the dry brush marks but I also really wanted to be able to make a wider variety of marks and to be better able to control the marks I was making. More experiments followed. I wiped the plate and tried again:

I realised I had not wiped the edge of the plate and I had not replaced the newsprint under the plate so the edges of the paper had unwanted ink on them. I had put on some very thick areas of ink - these just spread out when they were put through the press giving unpredictable results. 

Because the ink was thick there was a lot left on the plate and I was able to pull a 'ghost' print which was more grainy and less intense than the original. 

This time I just added additional ink to the ghost image on the plate so echoes of the previous print can still be seen coming through where the ink was thickest. I mage marks by wiggling and dabbing with brushes of various shapes:

I then tried really going overboard with the ink. I put a thick area of oily red ink on the plate then tried rolling a thinner layer of dark green ink over the top. The roller also picked up the red and made a second red mark. I liked this repeating effect. I also liked the fact that the green and red went over each other only in a couple of places - the oily red seemed to resist the green. I liked the texture that the roller put onto the thick ink- but of course this did not transfer onto the paper. The press squeezed it flat and spread it out. 

(The ink on this print was very very thick - being oil based ink it took more than two weeks to dry completely)

Because the ink was so thickly applied I was able to take two 'ghost' prints from this plate. The first one still had some quite vivid areas:

The second was thinner and grainy but could be a great base for overprinting or drawing into with other media:

I made some more marks by twisting palette knives and edges of cardboard with ink applied:

I also made some quite interesting marks by applying ink thickly and then scraping it back with a palette knife:

To clean up I rolled the remaining ink from the roller onto some scrap paper. I liked some of the marks that this made too. One area reminded me of an alien or of Munch's 'the scream'. I tore  a couple of the pieces of scrap paper away. I drew into them with pencil and stuck them in my sketchbook:

What I learnt:

• The hawthorn stay open ink is too tacky to use unadulterated with a brush unless you are aiming for dry brush marks
• Liquin gave better results than linseed stand oil but the ink was still very thick for painting with
• Thick oil-based ink takes a very long time to dry
• Thick wet oily ink will resist being rolled over with undiluted ink and be picked up by the roller for a repeating pattern
• A variety of tools can produce a variety of marks
• The texture of the ink on the plate doesn't transfer to the print if you put it through the press
• I learnt some of the foibles of my little press too- in particular not to overdo the pressure as its just causes the plate to slip

Things to learn and try:

• Keep trying ways to dilute the ink to make it easier to handle
• Try monoprints with water based inks
• Try subtractive techniques
• Try different plate types
• Try different paper types
• Try oil paint mixed with printing medium