Monoprinting with Watercolour

[Lineylops]

Thankyou for sharing such a lovely process!

[larrybland007]

thank you very much. i have learned tremendously from your skill

[littlegodpan1]

I like the part where you look around desperately for the spoon... lol

[IrregularVerb23]

Wonderful! I can't wait to try this :)

[JackANDJude]

Thanks for this fantastic image transfer method. I favorited this video. :)

[dstgermainart]

Thank you for sharing this method of watercolor monotype. I tried it but did not get a good transfer with hand rubbing. Could you please give more detail on how you prepare the acrylic glass? How much sanding is necessary? Was the sandpaper a smooth, medium or rough? And how much detergent to water mixture did you use? Did you just rub on and let dry or rub on and then rinse? Thank you. Diane

[easternstudio]

@dstgermainart

The plexiglass was sanded lightly with a medium sandpaper. The point of the sanding is so that the paint adheres to the plexiglass and doesn't 'bead up'. The soap also helps the paint to adhere.

On the other hand, I have had good results without either sanding or putting on soap.

I think that your poor transfer may be for one of 4 reasons:

(to be continued)

[EastCoastKTO]

@easternstudio @dsgermainart We put a coat of gum arabic on the plexi glass after sanding, before painting, when we did this in my Paint & Print class at NSCAD and it worked well to transfer it. We also used wooden spoons instead of a metal one, because it has a larger flat surface, but I don't think that matters as much.

[easternstudio]

@EastCoastKTO Gum arabic? thanks for the tip! That sounds like an even better idea than liquid soap..in terms of archival considerations.

Recently I've been using a roller over the paper to transfer the paint and that in combo with a spoon seems quite effective too.

[easternstudio]

continued....

1) Paint - it might have been too watery and not had enough pigment in it. Watercolour paint in tubes works best; or you can try gouche paints

2) Paper - you need a good quality printmaking or watercolour paper for this. By 'quality' I mean a paper with cotton in it that can take getting wet.

[easternstudio]

@dstgermainart (continued)

3) Wetness of paper - The paper must be damp all the way through in order for it to reactivate and absorb the paint

4) Dryness of paint - You must wait until your painting on the plexiglass is completely dry before placing the damp paper on it.......otherwise it will blur and smudge.

[dstgermainart]

@dstgermainart

I truly appreciate your help. I may not have had enough pigment on the plate. I would like to know when you use the dish detergent, do you put a thin film on the plate and allow that to dry before adding the watercolor pigment? Thanks again. Diane

[thyuiooo]

thanks alot youve really helped me with a mono print project in university :)

[easternstudio]

Hi Ceecee,

I've used oil paint when I've rolled it onto a bumpy surface and printed, but this printing happens on a smooth sheet of plexiglass and is really a 'transfer' of paint.

Do you think it would work with oil? It would be worth trying!

[ceecee2188]

Do you prefer to use oil paint or watercolour? We just used oil paint for the mono prints.. now we are on lino cut

[easternstudio]

Yes, the damp paper reactivates the watercolour paint and it picks up the brush strokes too! It's quite amazing.

[opcomment]

Hmm, so the paint on the plexiglass was already dried when you applied the wet paper? I see... it's kind of a reversed technique from regular monoprinting. Very interesting.

[mornalika]

Clearest and most straight forward video of mono printing that I have seen to date. Thank you.

[easternstudio]

Thank you so much for your encouraging words mornalika, ninosimone and Vam.

I think this is such an easy and successful way to monoprint that I want lots of people to know about it! :-D

[ninosimone]

i had to make a presentation for work and i didnt have a clue of monoprinting even though i read on it, your video made so much sense to me , seeing it done is so much better than reading about it,now i fully understand the art thank you so much.

[VamLoveAndKisses]

Wow! It's such a shame I wasn't able to do this in art before I stoped to do my GCSE choices! I would love to try! Thanks for the video!

[drbill66]

Fantastic Presentation...am intrigued to try it myself, am wondering what type of paint is being used.

[TigerLilyV]

You much be from Canada w/the accent. :) Thank you for the vid! I loved how that print turned out and I think I'll give that technique a go 'round myself! Very simple and the supplies are things I already have - so thats a plus! :)