Monotype: Not Camera Shy (& monotype process videos)

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This little monotype was printed from a sheet of mylar (see process photo below). Water-soluble pencils were used to begin the portrait on mylar, and then watercolor was added just before printing. After the monotype print was dry, I added more watercolor to increase the contrast and color saturation.

 

If you’re not familiar with monotype printmaking you can watch videos of the process as a little primer. Grab a beverage and a note pad to jot down some inspiration….

• Here’s a quick little dark field monotype demo by Jim Flowers, also known as the Snake Artist from his work with reptiles and marsupials.
• Here’s a nice demo by the inventor of Akua inks, Susan Rostow, printing a colorful monotype. If you’re curious about Akua inks or using a pin-press, this is a great introduction.
• Here’s one on my channel that focuses on adding additional media to a dark field monotype with watercolor and colored pencil.
• Here’s one more, filmed and titled in another language, but since there’s no dialogue, you can just watch the artist demonstrate a couple of different forms of monotype using a glass table top & tape, and a geli plate.

Have you ever made a monotype? Did you enjoy the process?

 

 

 

Art Quote

I’ve been actively engaged with mythic imagery ever since I picked up that Rackham book, but it really came into focus for me when I moved from London to the country. As I walked the extraordinary landscape of Dartmoor, I looked at the trees and the rocks and the hills and I could see the personality in those forms…then they metamorphosed under my pencil into faeries, goblins and trolls. After Alan and I published “Faeries”, he moved on from the subject of faery folklore to illustrate Tolkien and other literary works…while I discovered that my own exploration of Faerieland had only just begun. In the countryside, the old stories seemed to come alive around me; the faeries were a tangible aspect of the landscape, pulses of spirit, emotion, and light. They “insisted” on taking form under my pencil, emerging on the page before me cloaked in archetypal shapes drawn from nature and myth. I’d attracted their attention, you see, and they hadn’t finished with me yet.

~Brian Froud

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