Continuing with the monoprint demo, after the first pass over the plate with the red background color. Here is what I did next — (1) a mat board squeegee loaded with grey paint, then (2) the paint applied to the plate, then (3) a picture showing how I hand emboss the paper using my fingers around the edges of the plate, and finally (4) the result of transferring the grey to the red background, taking care to press firmly everywhere.
Between impressions I lightly spritz the paper, just to keep it damp enough to take the paint well, but not too wet so that the paint bleeds. Bleeding color is OK too, depending on the effect you want. I have done some monoprints using very wet paint and very damp paper, for a more watercolor like effect. You just want to be careful not to have so much paint on the plate that it squishes out the sides when you press down with your hands.
I like to emboss the paper during this process, because that’s one of the things I love about printmaking on a press. Those embossed edges leave no question that this is a hand pulled print!
Next, squiggles of blue-green plus yellow, right out of the bottles, and the resulting print of those two colors over the red and grey. Notice how the squiggles become blobs in the actual print:
Tomorrow, the wrap-up!
artists resources
February 1, 2007 at 10:20 pm |
This is fascinating!! I love learning something new!
April 1, 2009 at 1:36 pm |
hi martha, i am not sure you will see this comment as it is at a much later date that i am respoonding.
a couple of questions: first, do you shrink your paper first? does it buckle after drying? second, do you remove the paper from under the clip each time that you clean the plate? must be tricky if you don’t and equally tricky if you do.
thanks martha. sherrill
April 1, 2009 at 2:35 pm |
Sherrill, thanks for your question! (No problem with WordPress getting it to me.)
OK, let me see. I dampen the paper, but don’t shrink it. I do leave it clamped down for each successive print. But it’s desirable to keep it damp for the whole process. If it buckles aftger drying, it’s easy just to dampen it again and flatten it under something flat, such as plexiglas or glass, with a weight on top, for a day or two.
While printing, to keep the paper damp, I lightly spray the back of it with water once in a while throughout the process.
Thanks for that question leading to further clarification.