Monoprinting in Black

Today I took a step back and reviewed prints produced so far. I concluded that, on the whole, I’d inked too much plate area. I’d not left enough white space, but had insufficiently inked the covered areas. This led to poor registration with fuzzy outlines and content.

I decided to work in monochrome this time because I have plenty of black ink to use, whereas I felt I was “wasting” precious coloured oil-based ink.

I am pleased with the placement and registration of today’s prints. They are on newsprint. I used a smaller (ceramic tile) plate so there was ample space around the prints. The tile was a pale colour so I could visualise how the white space would look in the finished print.

Tomorrow I shall use what I’ve learned on a single-coloured print using coloured paper as well as on newsprint. Then perhaps I shall increase the number of colours used.

I’m strongly tempted to collage using the prints which didn’t work. I may well succumb to this temptation sooner rather than later.