Employing the Additive Technique for Creating Monotypes (2/2)

Author: Julia Ayres, Gail Ayres, Associate Editors

Using a butcher tray for a palette, put out quarter-sized amounts of Createx Monotype Colors (a little color goes a long way). While painting, try to avoid thick, impasto applications of ink-blobs of ink, especially when wet, will squish under pressure and lose their shape. The best technique is to apply pigments in a thin, even layer to avoid loss of details and unsightly blobs when the plate is printed. For applying colors, use Richeson series 9010 watercolor brushes, which are strong enough to carry the ink, yet soft enough to blend the colors. Other useful tools for adding color and texture are foam brushes, stamps, and soft rubber brayers. For more textured brush strokes, try acrylic and oil painting brushes. The new Colour Shaper tools are also interesting to work with. Right: The color is allowed to dry before moist paper is placed on top.

When you have finished developing your image, allow the Createx to dry on the plate before printing. To enable the pigments to transfer to the paper when the plate is printed, the paper will need to be moist. (Other water-based inks discussed below print while wet and will transfer to either moist or dry paper.) Evenly mist Arches 88 printmaking paper with water (sized printmaking papers will require soaking) until the paper is damp. When sufficiently moist, the surface of the paper will feel cool to the back of your hand; if you see a wet sheen (indicating too much moisture), the image will blur when printed. Let the paper dry until the sheen has just disappeared. Place the dry plate face up on an even, hard surface. Lay the moist paper down over it.

Use the Pinpress - a precision machined hand roller that gives a press-like transfer - to roll over the back of the moistened paper and press it onto the plate underneath. The colors rehydrate and transfer to the paper under the pressure. Right: The plate with moist paper on top are pressed together with the hand rolled Pin Press. Pull the print on the paper from the plate.

Right: A corner is lifted to make sure the color has transferred.

Right: "Grand Canyon", 8"x10" monotype

Monotype artist Terry Davitt Powell uses Createx's dry-before-print formula to full advantage by layering colors on her plates. This adds beautiful intensity and depth to her monotype images. Each layer of color is dry before a subsequent layer is added. The wet paint must be applied quickly so as not to rehydrate and muddy the previous layer. It's also important to remember that when printed, the colors put down first on the plate - those that are closest to the surface of the plate - will print last, and so will be the topmost colors in the final print. In addition to Createx, there are other excellent non-toxic, water-soluble monotype inks on the market, each with its own characteristics: Akua Kolor inks print while still wet on the plate and will transfer to either moist or dry paper (eliminating the necessity of moistening the paper). These colors roll up on the plate quite well (a technique somewhat problematic with the Createx). Graphic Chemical & Ink's W/S Block Printing Inks - another highly recommended line - have an opacity more typically associated with oil than water-soluble products. These, too, roll up beautifully on the plate as is, or you can thin them with small amounts of water applied with a brush. Speedball Water Soluble Block or Screen Printing Inks are versatile pigments that can be easily worked both wet and dry. These dry quickly, but will transfer to dry paper while wet, or quite easily to moist paper, once dry. In fact, you can print plates literally months after having developed the image using Speedball inks and they will transfer perfectly. The additive technique can also be done using watercolors or tempera. When using these mediums, lightly coat the plate first with gum arabic to help the pigments transfer to the paper. The best results are made transferring the paints when dry on the plate to moist paper.

[ Previous Page ]

Julia Ayres is the author of Monotype Mediums and Methods of Painterly Printmaking, published by Watson Guptill, which you can purchase in hardback here at WetCanvas! for only $20.97!

She has also written articles for American Artist, Watercolor, Art Materials Retailer and Southwest Art Magazines. Julia and her engineer inventor husband, David, live on a small ranch near Locust Grove, Oklahoma. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute, the Massachusetts College of Art, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art School. She also studied privately with a number of well-known artists, including William Maynard, Ralph Love, and Frederick Taubes. Ayres, and her daughter Gail, teach printmaking workshops nationwide. Additional information about making monotypes and on the Ayres' work can be found on-line at www.ayresstudio.com.