Printmaking 10: Monoprint/screenprint with directly applied watercolour (final)

By 2nd April 2008August 21st, 2018Blog

Negative life energy IINegative Life Energy II is the final, and most successful, variation in the experimental life energy series. It combines several of the techniques I’ve been working with:

  • paper stencilling with acrylic paint
  • direct application of watercolour pigment to a blank screen
  • photostencilling with acrylic paint
  • printing onto different paper stocks, in this case Fabriano

This print has a raw, spontaneous feel quite unlike the single screen prints that I started with. The marbled ink of the paper stencil has mostly blended into a dark brown reminiscent of woodblock prints. The directly-applied watercolour sits on top of that, giving a light and subtle blend of colour and an interesting texture. The final screenprint (a photostencil of the yin-yang watercolour sketch) is deliberately non-registered to increase the tension between the balanced imagery of the yin-yang and the Chinese life energy characters.