Two Coloured Masked Monoprints: attempt 3

I still wasn't quite happy with my attempts at the two coloured masked monoprints - the last lot were reasonably well aligned but they were not even prints as I hadn't adjusted the press correctly. 

I chose to use the heron image again because it was smaller and I thought I would be more likely to be able to get even pressure over a smaller area. I was working at WYPW and they had some samples of hawthorn stay open inks in indigo and chartreuse green which I tried together and found that they gave a good contrast. I managed to get a more even print but because the ink was quite opaque I couldn't see where to place the masks relative to each other - it was of no help to create a registration sheet because the heron mask did not contact the edge of the plate at any point. I was still making offset prints. At this point I was getting quite frustrated and thinking that this was a ridiculously difficult exercise for the start of a level 1 course. 

I realised that I needed some help with this so I asked another printmaker for ideas. Mick suggested placing the mask on print - then positioning the plate on top and flipping the whole lot over to print while hoping that nothing moved. Eureka! Why didn't I think of that? This was a much more accurate way of lining things up - obviously there is always the risk that something will move while trying to flip the plate/paper/mask sandwich over but the results were much much better:

This print is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The chartreuse background is not quite even and there is a finger mark in the corner. However at this point I had spent so much time on this particular exercise I really needed to move on so I decided to accept this one. 

I played around with a few ghost and multilayer prints and then cleared away to put a lid on this frustrating exercise. 

What I learnt:

• Ask for help if you need it !!!!!
• It is acceptable to position the plate over the paper then flip if you are struggling with alignment
• The indigo ink is lovely to work with - It can produce a very dark blue but in ghost prints it produces a lovely steely blue reminiscent of faded denim