Resources for Making a Monotype from Plexiglass – with Watercolors and Water Soluble Crayons

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Monotype Video Course

I’ve been listening to podcast interviews with other artists while filming a dark field monotype course.

Hearing other artists discuss their journey reminds me about what I didn’t know when I first started printmaking. It’s important to roll time back, and recall the minutiae of our own beginnings with any art process, if we want to teach it well. Don’t you think?

I’m excited to start editing and narrating the clips, because this course will demystify some of the assumed requirements to making monotypes.

The wall in my studio is covered with 6 x 6 inch dark field monotypes of land and seascapes, people, animals, and still life prints. Some were made from plexiglass plates, and others were pulled from metal, or gelli, or tin foil and cardboard plates.

A few were printed with ink, and many were printed from watercolor, or acrylics.

Monotype Printing Without a Press

I didn’t use my press to create any of the monotypes in this course.

Each print was transferred by hand, with a variety of tools, since most artists don’t have a press. And the field of monotype and monoprint tutorials is already loaded with patterned, stenciled abstract demonstrations, so I’m focusing on representational monotypes; images of life and things we recognize, etc.

Now, I need to cull through hours and hours of footage – and pare things down to decide which monotype demonstrations will transfer knowledge the best by watching the process with narration from start to finish.

(If you want to be notified when the course is published, click here.)

Artist’s Stories

In between filming this week, I read some essays, watched some process videos, and listened to a few great podcasts.

There is *so much* good content being produced out there, it just stuns me! Here are some links to the things I found noteworthy this week.

Printmaking Links for You

• David Begley makes ethereal, figurative monotypes that often appear to be arranged in a star field. This article came out during an exhibit he had in 2017, and there are photos of his working process while creating his dark field monotypes using a light table. Check it out here.
• If you’ve never seen a printmaker print a traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodcut, watch this video. In a fast paced, everything coming at you all at once world, watching this man’s graceful, lovingly performed process to ink and print hand carved blocks is mesmerizing.
• Ann Dinkelspiel is a Berkley, California psychologist, and an oil painter. This week, she posted a thought provoking essay on Six Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic. If you’ve been nagged about your art by that ill-tempered little booger residing in your own head, read her article, and kick that curmudgeon to the curb.

Monotype Resources

In case you’re itching to get some monotype printmaking rolling off your dining room table (because, after all, school is back in session, and little ones can’t interrupt), you can warm up with a self-paced monoprint course by printmaker Linda Germain here.

There is also a playlist of demos on YouTube over here.

And, even though the book Monotype – Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking by Julia Ayers is 28 years old – it’s still so viable! The book is chock full of demonstrations, examples, materials and considerations. I’d recommend it for anyone looking to explore this painterly printmaking method.

Which are your favorite printmaking resources? Leave us some printy links in the comments. ?

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post!

Belinda

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Art Quote

Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.

Maria Montessori

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