Printmaking 14: Markmaking – monoprint by directly drawing

By 25th May 2008August 21st, 2018Blog

This was my first adventure in mark making. I had high hopes for this technique, expecting it to be just a matter of learning how. I started with a reversed sketch from a forthcoming comic book (Mrs B is the nice cookie lady from the updated myth of the birth of Merlin in book II of Modern Times). The technique for creating the monoprint is to ink up a glass plate, gently lay the paper on the plate and draw directly onto the paper, lifting the ink. Any lettering must be reversed to read correctly because you’re working “invisibly” on the wrong side of the paper. Clearly you need to have both a firm, yet not too aggressive, touch and avoid pressing on the paper with your hand to keep from smearing the ink on the paper.

After several attempts I had to concede defeat. These were the best of the lot.

Although they were unsuccessful as independent prints, after putting them away for awhile I’m tempted to use them as a pre-distressed background image. One of the criticisms I have about my own work (and which got me marked down in my student work) is a tendency to try to work too “cleanly”. And given that I don’t have the discipline to sit down and practice, practice, practice to produce beautiful artwork, it tends to be neither artfully and fashionably grungy, nor Victorian picture perfect. By using these failed attempts as backgrounds and layering over them, perhaps I can get away from either extreme and start building up my own style.

And another serendpitous bonus … I got some interesting texture studies for my image library.