Monotypes

Nearly every time I finish printing a block and I have some ink left, I try a monotype or two on paper offcuts or on the back of a bad print. Mostly they have been unsuccessful, but I absolutely love doing them. I haven't had much time to carve blocks over the past few weeks with working on a dog portrait commission and having a family holiday in Cornwall (really nice), so I've only been able to grab a few half hours at a time to myself - perfect for monotyping.

I'm using plexiglass plates, which are good as you can turn them over to see how the image will look in reverse. This is also good as it can alert you to what's not right, like looking at a drawing in the mirror.

All these are about 7 x 9 inches -

My dog Polly has been my favourite subject so far. At fist I tried tracing drawings and photos of animals through the plexiglass but the results weren't dynamic at all, and that's the quality I love most in monotypes, so I called Polly into the studio and worked from life instead. I've found the quicker I work and the less fussing I do over detail, the better the results.

Next I tried making up some seals, inspired by the lovely underwater swimming I'd just seen at the seal sanctuary in Cornwall. The first is printed on Rives BFK and didn't transfer too well, leaving quite a lot of ink on the plate. The second is on Zerkall, which is a smoother paper and made for a better transfer.

And with my little girl, enjoying watching the seals at the seal sanctuary -