Painted monoprint from life: Second attempt

I wasn't at all satisfied with my previous attempt at this exercise; I had really struggled with handling the hawthorn inks even when diluted for this purpose. I had heard that Akua kolor liquid pigments were specifically designed for monoprints so I thought I'd have a try with these. They have the advantage of being easy to clean up with water even though they are oil based. 

These inks are much thinner than normal printing inks - for example trying to get them to roll out onto a plate was a disaster as the roller just slid all over the place and ro rolling out occurred. They really are designed for the painterly print not other types of monoprint. 

They are not, however, particularly easy to handle even for this technique. 

I decided to base the design on an old sketch from a previous A3 sketchbook or an orchid and a turned wooden bowl on some fabric. I placed the sketch under a sheet of Perspex and then painted the design on the perspex and pulled the print by hand onto a sheet of thin Chinese paper. 

The results were not impressive - very little of the ink had coloured the paper. I think it was a combination of too little ink (which dried quickly as I was painting) and quite an absorbent paper. 

I tried again with the same paper but using a lot more ink. This wasn't any more successful. Given that the ink is quite thin it has a tendency to smear everywhere if you apply too much. Also after 24 hours a clear halo of oil could bee seen around the thick areas of ink. The oil was leaching away from the pigment into the paper. 

I also found that even though the ink was thick on the second one, the colours were not particularly vivid. I noticed that one of the more opaque of the colours was the white so I decided to try painting with lighter colours containing lots of white onto black paper. The black paper was smoother and less absorbent - so I hoped that more of the ink would stay on the surface rather than being absorbed. 

I hinged the paper over my plate using masking tape - that meant that I could keep lifting the paper to look at my image and add more ink where needed before dropping the paper back in exactly the same position. - This was a much more effective technique

I was a bit troubled by the obvious brush marks in the background on my first attempt so I had another try with a smoother background and an even more vivid colour scheme. 

What I learnt:

• Hinged registration is a good way to allow you to build up an image gradually
• Akua liquid pigment is difficult to handle but can produce vivid results with perseverance. 
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