This week I spent time doing some light-hearted monotype printing. Fish!

Sometimes simple projects can be a good recharge. I’ve been physically and emotionally immersed in the details of the large quilt I’ve been working on, and I needed a break. And, as I begin to think of what projects I want to work on next. Playing with some organic forms in pleasing colors is a good transition.

I cut a fish stencil that I liked. (Actually, I cut two stencils. The first one was just awful. A few prints convinced me that I needed a plan B.) I like the simplicity of this one, and the contrast between the large solid fish body and the delicate appendages.

I did all of my printing in a single color – a dark black blue. I mixed up phthalo blue with black about 50-50. I pulled a few scraps from my previously printed stash. They provided nice contrast.

The yellow-brown pattern is a sheer polyester. That brown pattern was printed as a linoleum block print.

The bright lime green is a piece of shiny sateen. The blue-green piece is cotton muslin. Each of these had been previously painted.

A few nice rediscoveries from this printing session:

Transparency: I love the way a thin coat of acrylic allows just a hint of what’s printed underneath to show. Here’s a sample of that on the piece printed blue/black over the yellow patterned fabric.

Contrast: Creating effective monotype shapes really depends on good contrast. On the yellow prints, the overprint is a good contrast both in hue and value. On the blue-green fish, the hues are all in the same family, but the value of the blue/black is different enough that the shape shows well.

I decided to make the yellow printed fish into a paper collage.

I added some other fabric scraps, mixing up sheers and muslin. Everything is collaged with matte medium onto a sheet of 140# watercolor paper

Then I added a few hand-drawn elements.

Here’s a detail

The finished, matted collage is on my website, HERE. I hope you’ll take a look.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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