Positive and Negative Masked Monoprints

Finding a Design:

The aim of this part was to create a design that was relatively simple and would be easy to read and have impact in both the positive and the negative shapes. 

The course notes specifically say not to rush this stage - unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very inspired on this particular day and was casting about for ideas without much success. Consequently I got a bit frustrated and was eager to move on to printing - I probably moved on too quickly from this stage. I may revisit this. 

I had enjoyed doing some quick and free sketches of seagulls when I was in Ischia and I thought that the simplicity of these sketches might translate well into a design. I dug out my Ischia sketchbook ad tried to reproduce a couple of the sketches on a larger scale and in silhouette. This didn't fill me with enthusiasm. It was on doing this that I realised that the charm of these lively little sketches comes from the quality of the line. Eliminating most of the lines effectively kills them: Time to try again. 

One of my clients had given me a photograph of his cat (my patient) sitting on a branch which I love. I thought the composition might be interesting with the branch curving across the page from side to side and the recognisable cat silhouette seated on top. Not so: the drawing looked very static. 

I went back and looked at some of my old sketchbooks. I had particularly enjoyed the life drawing section of Drawing 1 and settled on a sketch which I had particularly liked from the rapid gesture drawing section. I traced the outline of this drawing and drew the silhouette into my sketchbook. 

Making the Masks:

I cut several masks using a scalpel on a cutting mat. I initially cut some in cartridge paper then a few more in Newsprint.

Inking the Plate:

I used Hawthorn 'Stay Open' oil based ink in manganese blue for the prints with the negative mask and in cadmium red deep for the prince with the positive mask. 

I added a couple of drops of thin plate oil to the ink to make it less tacky as well as a couple of drops of cadmium driers to speed up the drying process. 

I used my glass breadboard as an inking plate and rolled the ink into a thin even layer. I then rolled the ink onto the plate. My plate was much larger than my masks so I Created a newsprint mask the same size as my paper to keep the edges clean and also to give me an idea as to whether I had covered enough of the plate for the size of paper I was using (A3). 

Masking the Printing Plate:

This was more difficult than it sounds. Putting the mask in the right position on the sticky ink without catching air bubble underneath and without having to move it around which will spoil the clean layer of ink requires forethought and precision. 

Taking the Print on Paper: 

My first attempt to print the plate with the negative mask applied was onto quite thick cartridge paper (probably about 170gsm) and I used a roller and my speedball baren to rub across the back of my paper. The resulting print was very very thin - more like a ghost print than a first impression. Also the figure of the woman was much narrower than it is in reality because the combination of the thickness of the paper and the thickness of the cartridge paper mask meant that less of the paper surface came in contact with the ink than was intended. 

I had a few more attempts at this. Printing onto newsprint and burnishing with my hand and especially round the edges with my fingers worked better because I could see when the paper had stuck to the ink. 

I remembered that when doing a Lino cutting course I had hand burnished with a metal spoon. Many of the printmaking books recommend a wooden spoon or a doorknob. Unfortunately all of my wooden spoons are well used and not really suitable for burnishing so I had a go with a metal spoon. My main problem with this was patience and memory. I managed to get more ink onto the paper with this method. However, it wasn't even. On the cartridge paper my figure has an odd specked appearance which I quite like - she reminds me of science fiction with a sort of alien glow emanating from her. 

On Newsprint, the metal spoon marks showed more vividly because the paper was thinner - they looked like additional drawing. The second image below was from the plate after the mask was removed with the residual ink that was under the mask. 

This got even worse when I tried doing the spoon burnishing across the whole of the plate after removing the masks. Didn't have the patience and persistence required to go over each tiny section of the plate several times and the organisation and memory to make sure I did every little bit of the plate - instead I just randomly circled across the plate resulting in lots of spiralling squiggles across my print. Effectively I'd added back drawing to my print rather than burnishing it. 

I then took a further print from this plate using the baren - you can see lighter areas on the print where my spoon has removed ink from the plate. 

I then repeated the process with the positive mask. Again I used a mask around the edges of the inked up areas of the plate to stop the contamination of edges. This time the model looked fatter even though was the exact same size as the negative shape in the the other mask Again because of the thickness of the mask and paper reducing the contact with the ink around the edges of the mask. I made thinner masks by using newsprint and pressed into the areas around the edges of the mask using my fingers. 

I had used a baren to pull the prints but they are still quite grainy and uneven. I tried again with a roller after removing the mask: Even worse!

Another grainy ghost print:

Overall, I thought that my mask worked well in both positive and negative but it wasn't the most creative of images. 

What I learnt:

• Achieving an even and clean print by hand burnishing is extremely difficult
• Thinner paper can be a help or a hindrance: - it is easier to press in around the edges of the mask for a clear out line but is also more clearly shows areas that are uneven
• Thick paper for the mask stands up to punishment but makes it more difficult to get a clear outline on dry paper

Things to try:

• Try working smaller - easier to burnish and predict an even print over a small area?
• Is it possible to burnish onto dampened paper?
• Try other papers