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:

Sally Hirst - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0I1po0jNsY

Handprinted UK - https://www.instagram.com/handprinteduk/?hl=en

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. 

BONUS MATERIAL: MAKING A COLLAGRAPH PLATE

This is a quick romp through one of my collagraph plate making techniques. I have been making a series of small bird plates to keep myself occupied and to experiment with inking techniques. Small means that everything goes faster and if I make a mistake I am not wasting acres of ink and paper.

I always work from drawings and have met all the birds I make. I have a box full of my own photographs, they are not brilliant, often out of focus, even empty as the bird moves off out of shot. But it is important to me however bad a photograph it is, it is my bad photograph, therefore my starting point and research.

I trace my drawing using a sharp B pencil.

I then cut a piece of grey board slightly bigger than I need. 

Here comes the health and safety. 

I always start with a new blade, blunt blades will slip and therefore be more dangerous. I always use a safety ruler and can show you the scar the one time I did not take my own advice. I also always cut card standing up, it means I am in the right position to cut downwards with force on the blade.

I tape my tracing pencil side down onto my grey board. This means that the image will automatically reverse and will print the same way round as my original drawing.I then follow the traces lines with an HB pencil transferring the original pencil tracing to the substrate.

The grey board will give me a mid tone when printed, so my next job is to add the light and white. Here I use exterior wood adhesive.

I give areas that I want very white a couple of layers of glue, letting it dry between each layer. Using a fine brush I will pop white detail onto the feathers and with a pointed stick draw into the glue as for the cotton on the reel.

With the glue dry I will use a scalpel to carve and peel layers off the card for dark details. 

Here you can see the glue detail in the eye ready to give that cheeky glint.

My statement style is to have cut shaped plates often leaving a square edge somewhere to help my framer out when positioning work into frames. To cut round the plate I use a heavier knife following my earlier safety guidelines.

I cut out sections gradually working from the image to avoid cut marking the plate accidentally. 

This creates lots of bits but is worth the extra time carefully cutting.

After a layer of thin shellac the plate is ready to print.

This sparrow print is 10cm X 10cm

A CREATIVE PROMPT: COLLAGE

I still haven't cleaned behind my fridge!! I have however taken some time to gather together the eco and rust printing, both on fabric and paper. 

I have also had a good rummage in boxes and suitcases for vintage fabrics and papers, decorative tissue and handmade papers.

 Worryingly I seem to have a stock pile of all these things that I had forgotten about.

I have compiled the substrates that I have drawn, inked and painted on. Now is the time to work into these pieces or covering up anything I don't like. Also to use those precious bits and pieces that have been languishing in a stash...now is that moment for these treasures to shine.

Lets start with the paper and the vintage and hand made papers I have been hoarding...I mean collecting.

The colour of eco printing lends itself to vintage, hand made and printed tissue paper. I like subtle muted tones, but if you love colour and you feel that the eco print has gone a bit dull, now is the time to use hits of brightness.

I like to use PVA glue with a sponge roller to attach my collage. You might prefer Pritstick, I always apply the glue to the collage piece making sure I glue over the edges, then apply everything to the main substrate. This stops glue getting all over the front of the piece.

I try things out first, moving unglued things around before I commit myself to sticking. I particularly like the way tissue paper, rusted or plain blends into the surface when the PVA is on it.

A well glued piece of collage will become part of the surface. But as usual, anything goes and if you like partly attached pieces, try that out too.

There will be a few pieces that you will not want to cover, the mixed media drawing or an eco print which has been very successful.

Turn them over and collage the reverse, this will make it two sided, ready for a later idea.

Most of my collage tends to be random and ripped. Here I have cut circles of paper in response to the washer printed paper. Give shapes a try.

If like me you have a large stash of eco printing and rusted tissue make complete pages in 

sketchbooks and use them as surfaces to draw onto.

My fabric pieces have been treated in much the same way although I have used vintage and eco printed fabrics to collage with.

Less is more for me, I have just chosen fabric that again blends in with the background and added ripped strips here and there.

I have attached them with a spot of glue stick to hold the pieces in place. This is not a permanent solution. 

You might want to hand stitch these bits in place, simple repetitive stitches work well or/and

machine stitch. Either free machine embroidering or a set decorative stitch. Just holding fabric collage in place or embellishing shapes and areas that have been painted or drawn on.

Of course, you could collage fabric onto the paper substrates and paper onto the fabric work.

Stitch into the paper with your machine or hand stitch.

Draw, paint and print back into the pieces after you have attached the collage. 

I found the more I worked onto a piece the more I wanted to layer back into it with the previous techniques.

The thing that really concerned me was that despite delving into my stash, it just didn't seem to get smaller...!!

I could give you a vast list of artists using collage and mixed media to have a look at, that's what Pinterest is for lets face it. But here are a few of my favourites:-

http://www.littlefieldstudios.com/paperfiber-mixed-media

https://www.robenmarie.com/blog/watch-the-process-art-journal-page-flourish

https://www.instagram.com/under_the_oaks_creativity/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/shelleyrhodesartist/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/carolinebelltextiles/?hl=en

https://casholmes.wordpress.com/

Enjoy manipulating your ever growing resources and using up some of those things you are keeping just in case. Have the best creative week you can. Best wishes, Sue

A CREATIVE PROMPT: RUST

As the weeks go by I find that I am exploring processes and techniques I have not allowed myself to experiment with in detail. Trying things out, however  trivial, is helping to keep me positive.

I am enjoying building up a collection of resources that I can use for a complete project later. 

This is not the time to start the grand  seminal project, I do not feel ready to embark on War and Peace or clean behind the fridge. 

As each day goes by I am trying small experiments and working on getting better at what I do rather than take on something completely new.

There is one small upside to this enforced isolation, I no longer get cold calls on the land line!

This Sunday is all about rusting onto paper and fabric to add to your stash of mixed media eco prints.

You will need, rubber gloves, plastic bags, white vinegar, rubber bands and a variety of rusty metal things. Here I have old keys, tacks, course wire wool, old washers and some etched steel.

The daily walk is throwing up the odd bit of metal too, so keep your eyes peeled.

From left to right  my substrates are handmade paper, tissue. cartridge paper, embossed 300gm Somerset etching paper, fabric that has sat for a year in a compost heap, white cotton and a piece of silk. You can use the less than successful eco printed paper /fabric. Everything has to be natural fibre.

Spray each substrate material with mixed half vinegar and half water. Each piece should be completely saturated.  

Lay the first wet piece on a plastic bag and start to arrange your rusted objects. 

Use rubber gloves when handling rusty stuff and pulling wire wool apart. 

Neither are kind to hands.

Then lay the next soaking piece on top, 

arrange the next set of rusted objects.

Keep layering substrate and objects in this way. I alternated paper and fabric layers. 

It is important that the objects have full surface contact with the substrates. The rusty objects should be flat to achieve successful prints and everything must be really wet. 

Carefully slide the bundle into a generously sized plastic bag .

And give it another good spray with your dilute vinegar for good measure.

Pop the bundle into a water proof tray, then 

 weight it down so that the substrate surfaces are in full contact with the rusty objects.

Leave over night.

This process will not take long. 

Carefully peel off each substrate removing the rusty objects as you go. 

Be extra careful with the wet tissue paper as it will be very delicate. 

Let everything dry. Wash the fabrics gently in salty water to halt the rust. 

I am very pleased with how well each of the fabrics took the rust prints. 

The paper has also been very successful.

Of course you can adapt last weeks techniques to these surfaces or have a go at eco printing into the rusted patterns, what will happen? 

Have a go with different wetting agents, just water, tea, coffee and see the difference that makes to the rust colour?

Try painting with acrylic onto the fabric and paper before you rust into them?

So much to try out and so much time in which to have a go!!

Further research:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4H1vwqQOY -  Aannsha Jones makes a really lovely scarf.

https://www.lizziegoddentextiles.co.uk/blog/2018/6/20/printing-with-rust - Lizzie Godden works with some chunkier items.

https://www.the-sustainable-fashion-collective.com/2015/05/27/unusual-eco-design-technique-rust-dyeing Charlie Bradley Ross talks about eco fashion design

and last but by no means least

http://www.alicefox.co.uk/ - Alice Fox

Good luck and it would be lovely to see any results from these prompts, you can find me at https://www.instagram.com/sb.brown21/ and tag @sb.brown21 if you post anything there.

Have the best creative week you can. Best wishes, Sue