Saturday 25 April 2020

A CREATIVE PROMPT: NO MESS MONO PRINT

Today's Creative Sunday Prompt is all about mark making and materials. I can't quite leave the techniques behind just yet, although I am teetering on the brink of making some of these sample substrates, both paper and fabric, perhaps into book forms...but some of you may have done that already?
I will leave that for a couple of weeks time.
I am still layering and developing the samples from week one.
You may have seen this drawing on my Instagram page. It was inspired by the Karen Stamper Sketch Book Revival tutorial and the techniques appeared in Prompt number three. I have been developing twists on the original process using the things I have available and making them as printy as possible. I have now decided to pep things up with some transfer mono printing.
There must be something in the air as I was sorting out this post mid week, several other artists popped up on social media with mono print tutorials, I will list those I came across for you to have a look at.
Transfer mono printing was a technique I used extensively as a student in the late 70's, whoops, I said it, whose now counting on their fingers? But in lock down some of you may not have access to ink or rollers, so this is a slightly cleaner version with materials you may have. 
Gather together surfaces you have been making due to the earlier prompts, again it will work on fabric and paper. Here I have the sketchbook I made from the first Sketch Book Revival tutorial, eco printed papers and fabric. You will also need sheets of thin paper, raid your printer for this, cheap thin cartridge will also do to.
Have a rummage through your art materials, wax crayons, oil pastels, cheap or otherwise, coloured pencil crayons, inktense sticks, oil bars, give anything a bit of a go for this. I would stay clear of charcoal or chalk pastels unless you have fixative or hair spray to deal with the moving surfaces afterwards, but if they are all you have use them.
Rip your thin paper into strips and scribble the surface with your chosen material to create a dense area of colour. Here I have used, from bottom to top, red crayon, orange oil bar, black and blue oil pastel. 
On the right I have lined up the materials I will use to transfer marks onto my substrates with. A chunky graphite, biro, thin graphite, biro and a pencil.
Lay your pastel covered paper, colour side down onto your substrate. I have used a biro and drawn on the reverse with some pressure a flower shape.
This is the eco printed paper, inked and painted with acrylic, then collaged onto last week.
Using white oil pastel I get a lovely soft, smudgy line from my transfer drawing.
Using blue oil pastel covered paper I can add
a drawn mark across my composition.
It is softer, but works just as well on fabric, here adding white marks and pops of orange to an eco printed fabric.
You could prepare by having a guide drawing on the back of your computer paper first before loading the colour. In this example I have loaded a sheet the size of my sketch book page with several colours and
using a variety of drawn marks varying the thickness and pressure by combining biro and graphite.
With more than one colour on the transfer paper, together with soft and hard marks, I think it is a good starting point
to a more complex drawing, especially as the lines should be resistant to some inks and water colour washes.
This is another way to use that stash of pastels lurking in the materials draw and less messy than an ink version of transfer mono printing. 
It is also a brilliant mobile method. A quick on the spot drawing during our allotted exercise period, take prepared transfer papers in a couple of colours for a doodle outside in your sketchook?

For further research but different mono print techniques, check out:
and last but not least, Under the Oaks - https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xyKJ9DlZjn8P8VtxwURqzDzVVQYd6PxlJuU80/ you will also find lots of other lovely techniques here. 

I would love to see what you come up with, if you do post your results on Instagram please tag @sb.brown21 and I will see what you are getting up to.
Have the best creative week you can. 

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