Monoprinting

Today I have been really busy developing my drawings for the new brief and thinking of lots of different ways to create unusual motifs for the theme 'folklore'. One of my favourite techniques I have been working with today is monoprint. It's a very simple technique and can sometimes look a bit boring (I think so), but if you have a play around with it and experiment with different ways of creating a monoprint, you can get a really interesting outcome. 

Here's one I did today!

There is a few ways you can monoprint and people tend to have their own habits. But this is how I do it anyway...

I started off by choosing a drawing from my sketchbook that I wanted to develop. I began to trace it because you will need to stick it down on the back of the paper your monoprint will be going on. You could also photocopy it but It's only a simple design so I thought i'd quickly trace it. 

I wanted two layers of colour on my monoprint, so I traced the thick stalks of my flowers first on one sheet of tracing paper and on a separate sheet, I traced the flower heads and a few leaves.  

I then prepared my board by squeezing a small dollop of mono paint and rolling it until it's a very thin layer. With masking tape I then stuck down my first traced image on the back of the paper where my print will go. I then went over the image with a pen whilst being careful not to lean on the rest of the paper because it will smudge the monoprint on the other side.

Then gently peel off the paper to find your first layer. I then repeated the last few steps for my second layer but using a different colour. 

...and here's my final outcome! I think it has created a really nice motif and has the potential of maybe being used in a final piece after a little cleaning up and a bit more development.