I had another go at using coloured ink in my monoprints. I won’t have too much trouble choosing the best 4 pieces for submission to my tutor as so few are worthy. But I learned a lot along the way.

• Add oil to ink to make it more workable
• Use bold colour combinations
• Leave plenty of white space
• Use pale coloured plate if printing on white paper
• Keep hands spotlessly clean
• Use up leftover ink for experimentation
• Be organised with workspaces
• Give ink plenty of time to dry
• Store pieces carefully (ideally in plan chest)
• Clean off print plate etc immediately after use
• Line paper up squarely onto plate

Here are some random experiments

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I’ll likely submit the following four prints:

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It’s time to move on to Project 2. But I must first write up my Still Life research point (parts 2-4).

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.

My first stab of the day took 50 mins to produce. Too long. The ink was all but dry by the time I showed it to the paper.

This following print was completed in just 10 minutes:

Both were printed onto A3 printer paper. There is a little too much white space, though again it is well placed on the paper.

My final attempt of the day was into (somewhat optimistically) Fabriano 250gsm Printmaking Paper (28x38cm)

Registration is still an issue, but not insurmountable. I do have a Jack press I can try, after all. I can also try making the ink a bit thinner using cheap olive oil or similar.

Manyana.

So, I got as far as clearing away my previous project (creating a junk journal for “seasonal gifting”). I even got as far as donning paint-spattered apron in readiness – only to remove it again.

What the hell is my problem?!

Naturally (for me) I turn to wiser heads than mine via a good book on the subject of Procrastination, and its close cousins, Fear and Resistance. “The War of Art” (Pressfield. 2002) is more than just a clever title. Steven Pressfield attempts to condense these issues with creative resistance into bite-sized, easily digestible mini-chapters. This attractively slim volume is less intimidating than other heftier tomes on the subject. Chapters can be accessed at random (between tentative stabs at what we artists “ought to be doing” with our time) without harming the underlying message.

I flip through the book and pause at a catchily titled section, “Resistance and Fundamentalism”.

“Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “What is the meaning of my life?”

Huge questions.

Humanity, Pressfield argues, was not designed to exist independently. Therefore the concept of “Freedom” is incomprehensible to us.

Is it not the case then, that in our pursuit of happiness, we equate this feeling with being free? Hence, this constant craving for satisfaction, equates to an attempt to locate the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Perhaps then I am asking too much of myself to create satisfying outcomes in isolation? That “spirit of independence ” over which I am so protective, is the very thing that prevents me from achieving my goals?

I need my hand held, then?

Or, do I need a partner in crime as a witness to my creative endeavours. Perhaps, in the absence of said partner, I could choose to create under the watchful gaze of a lens?

References:

Pressfield. S. 2002. The War of Art. New York. Grand Central Publishing

I started the session by rereading the project brief. In the past few days I have played around with colour combinations and different papers but not with the composition. In the initial still life set up the singer statuette appeared to be affronted by the presence of the Buddha’s head. I decided to turn them both around so that they faced one another.

I’m finding Monoprinting to be a bit hit and miss. But at the same time I am learning a lot from the experimentation. Due to a poor sleep pattern, I had a late start today and attempted to cut a corner by using primary colours as well as green straight from the tubes. The resulting print is not the most successful ever. I keep forgetting (perhaps due to the copper coloured plate) that un-inked areas will be blank white on the final print. I need to learn that the lightest areas need to be left without ink, so that they remain white.

I did, at least, find a reliable method for laying the paper onto the plate in such a way as to achieve a centred, well-aligned print. This was achieved by lining up the topmost edge of the paper just above the the top edge of the plate and slowly rolling it down onto the plate, rather than placing it onto the plate and hoping for the best.

I could have ended up with a more successful outcome had I used yellow ink instead of the muddy colour (red and blue mixed) when defining the texture of the open pine cone so that its outline was discernible from the background of the block supporting the Buddha’s head.

I tried using the other end of the brush to draw into the ink in the background as well as for added texture on the pine cone. This I shall do again.

What to remember for tomorrow:

• Try a different colour plate (perspex, plastic or even a white tile?)
• Leave well lit areas blank
• Start earlier in the day
• Don’t cut corners
• Mix colours ready for application
• Continue using paper line-up method to achieve centralised print
• Be aware of the necessity of colour and tonal contrast when applying ink to the plate

Enough for today.

I started the day by looking at yesterday’s notes. The most successful print so far has been the following:

The gold ink did not register very well though. Also, I am having trouble learning to line up the paper with the edge of the plate so that it is central and with parallel margins on each side.

For today, I have been using purple, orange and green oil based ink. I brushed this onto the same copper plate marked with a black Sharpie pen.

My first print was promising, though the colour combinations appeared a little toxic. However, I had unfortunately missed an area down to the right hand side of the plate (on the left of the print in front of the Buddha’s head). This gave a weird misshapen look to the print. I decided, the next time I drew this still life, I would line up the box with the edge of the print plate. Seems obvious to me now. Doh.

I brushed ink onto the missed area, then took a ghost print:

The ghost print would have been ok, only I inadvertently picked up an errant spot of green ink, thereby spoiling the print.

This third attempt perhaps taught me the most about colour, contrast and tone. From this print, I later drew the following thumbnail:

I shall return to this tomorrow with renewed vigour, having learned these important points:

• Remember to leave blank /white areas for effective contrast
• Use bold/complementary colour choices
• Be selective in inking areas that are “key” such as shadows and necessary outlines.
• Keep work area, gloves and hands very clean
• Make angles approximate to plate edge actually line up with the edge of the print plate

Not a bad days effort – though I’ve yet to produce a print I’m really happy with. But after today I feel I will at least have achieved that aim by the end of this week.

I thought I’d start by drawing the desired image onto the clean copper plate using a black sharpie. Then paint the ink (oil based this time) in turquoise, pink and gold instead of purple, green and gold. Yesterday’s “purple” looked rather blue and was too close to green on the colour wheel for my liking. However, I liked the textured effect of brush marks on the copper plate.

I stuck with the same selection of objects – the Buddha’s head, with the sculpture of a singer. As the pine cone appeared to have been omitted from yesterday’s efforts in water based ink, I tried to make more of a feature of it in today’s. I had thought I may make a substitution for something else entirely.

I drew a design onto the plate with a black sharpie, as follows:

It feels a bit like cheating, doing it this way. I still feel slightly trepidatious attempting a print. It’s as though I’m taking some kind of a risk. The overall feeling is one of experimentation and the excitement that brings. But there is also an underlying fear that the act of “play” does not equate to a “proper job” or “real work”.

Given the luxury of extra drying time in using oil based instead of water based inks, I took advantage of this by attempting more detail in painting onto the plate.

The resulting print, though not centred correctly on the paper (or in fact on the right side of a textured paper) is nevertheless a vast improvement on yesterday’s rather hurried attempt:

I cleaned the ink from the plate using vegetable oil. Happily, my sharpie pen marks were only slightly less defined, therefore tomorrow I shall attempt a further experiment.

Looking back at my last post, I notice the colour of the photograph of the inked plate and realise that blue, orange (copper colour) and greenish-gold or turquoise, would look rather effective together. I think at the very least I may deepen the pink of the background to more of a salmon pink.

Looking at the equipment list at the start of the monoprint section, I see I have most, if not all of the items already. All I need do is select my items for a still life.

For this Exercise, I chose items that had relevance emotionally as well as being interesting forms. I chose a sculpture of a singer which my sister had created for my last birthday; a framed photo of my partner which was taken whilst out walking in some woods; and a pine cone which represents my enjoyment of the countryside. These I arranged on an old table I had used as a painting palette. This which was scuffed and marked with paint splodges and coffee rings.

After some consideration I decided to replace the hard edged photo frame with a Buddha head which my brother had rescued from a skip one day on his way to visit me. I found this object to be more sympathetic and complementary with the other two remaining items.

I had prepared two pieces of perspex for this experiment, but I wasn’t completely happy with the edges of these as they were rather irregular. I wanted nice crisp straight edges to my print so used some copper plate I’d forgotten I had which I found languishing in the bottom of a drawer.

I chose my three colours – bluish purple, gold and green. The first print I took from the inked plate barely registered on the newsprint as the ink had dried before I could lay the paper on top.

I reapplied the ink and took a second proof. This was an improvement, but I feel that I will use oil based ink next time as it is slower to dry. However, the test prints were useful in that I was able to see the effects of the brush stroke textures and imagine how this method could be effectively manipulated to interesting effect.

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I think I shall also choose more complementary colours for the next experiment. Perhaps gold, turquoise and pink. Also, the paper could have been more central and level on the print plate. But I am pleased that I managed to avoid leaving smudges or finger marks around the edge of the paper. I had taken the advice to wear gloves which I cleaned between occasions of touching either the plate or the paper using sanitizing gel. This seemed to work rather well.