They are now ready for their closeups!
I began this week with a productive marathon hand printing session.
(A friend of mine calls these my mad scientist artmaking sessions.)
My goal was to work on several different surfaces -- tissue paper, muslin, sheer polyester -- and to create a body of patterns that might work well with each other and with other pieces I had printed recently.
So it’s a kind of mix ‘n match. The pattern stayed mostly the same. The colors and materials were switched around.
I love the process of creating these monotypes. I used natural grass shapes as image resists on my gelatin plate and printed by hand with acrylic paints.
Here’s some of what resulted:
On tissue paper. Monotype first hit pale blue. Second hit with grasses as resist, printing with darker blue.
That same tissue paper print, collaged to muslin, then machine stitched.
On shiny sateen. Monotype first hit bright green. Second hit with grasses as resist, printing with darker green. Then collaged to felt and machine stitched.
On sheer polyester. Monotype first hit ochre yellow. Second hit with grasses as resist, printing with mixed teal blue.
On muslin. Fabric sponge painted darker blue. Monotype hit with grasses as resist, printing with yellow mixed with white.
On muslin. Fabric sponge painted yellow. Monotype hit with grasses as resist, printing with darker ochre-yellow.
Monotype print with grasses as resist: white paper with ochre/brown acrylic(right). On the left is the ghost image of that plate (It’s what’s left on the plate after the main hit. With thin printing material like thin paper, you can pick up these delicate shapes.)
The result of this work is a body of pieces that may work together, or may end up in separate finished pieces. Because hand printing is so tactile, already I feel connected to these pattern prints and look forward to using them in finished works.
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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