Project 3: Two Coloured Masked Monoprints- Attempt 1

I was due to participate in a workshop on drypoint at Artison in Masham on Friday 4th November. Unfortunately, the tutor Hester Cox was unwell on the day so the workshop was cancelled. I have rebooked for another one of Hester's courses next year. 

I had already travelled to Masham before the cancellation occurred so Gaynor and Sue at Artison invited me to use the printmaking workshop for the day. They have a small etching press and (oil based etching) ink, plates and paper were made available to me. So I thought I would take advantage of the offer and work on some of my coursework. 

I started off getting to grips with the press by doing some smaller versions of the refugee mother and child image I had worked on previously. I repeated the same motif in both an additive and a subtractive painterly fashion. I also took ghost prints and then worked into them with a drawing pen. These versions were somewhat more successful that when I tried working on a larger scale with these images but there is still room for significant improvement. 

I then moved on to make an attempt at the two coloured masked monoprints. 

What I did:

Unfortunately, there weren't any plates available that were large enough to take the templates I had made for the single colour monoprints. However, I had brought some images of birds with me because the subject of the cancelled workshop was 'beautiful birds in drypoint '. I quickly cut out masks based on a photograph of a heron because I loved the curve of it's neck which made for a strong silhouette. 

Before starting to print I drew around the positive and negative masks on a piece of graph paper as I thought that if I placed this template under the plate I would be able to decide where to place the masks on each plate. 

I placed the positive mask on one plate and took an impression of this in red. The red ink was quite lumpy and despite working it with a palette knife I couldn't get it to roll smoothly. However this did mean that when I placed the plate over the template I could see where to place the positive mask. 

I inked the second plate with a sap green which rolled out much more smoothly and was quite opaque. It was only on placing the negative mask on the second plate that I realised that the two plates were not exactly the same size. There was approximately a centimetre's difference in their lengths. My graph paper template was of no use when placed under the plate because the ink was opaque and I couldn't see through it. I ended up just having to take an educated guess where to place the masks. The resulting prints show varying degrees of offset and are not the smooth prints I was aiming for with the press because of the blobby red ink

Results:

What I learnt:

• Dodgy ink can sometimes make for interesting effects
• Eyeballing two coloured masked monoprints is not accurate
• Make sure you have two plates of the same size before you start
• Using a template under the plate to decide where to place you mask is of no use if you cannot see through your inked plate.

Things to learn and try:

• Try this exercise again but plan better and use plates which are the same size as each other
• Learn how to register the plates and masks better for this exercise