At the Beach 4x6 Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Strathmore Cold Press post card paperThis started as a late night doodle, propped on pillows in the sofa bed in San Diego earlier this week. I added graphite and colored pencils to it this morning after looking at photos of faces in bright, beachy sunlight. An exploration of squinty light and face shadows.Available for sale here.
Sunday Paper in the Park, 4x4 Monotype with Watercolor & Colored PencilThe petite readers I've been working on this week - and 20 other paintings & prints, will be exhibited tomorrow night, Friday, Sept 28th at the Canyon Theatre Guild Gala Fine At Invitational. The fine art exhibit & fund raiser will kick off the annual street painting festival this weekend. Tickets to the Friday night Gala are available at the Canyon Theatre Guild box office.After moving ink around, and tapping it out of light areas, I'm ready to print.Pulling the monotype.You can see the amount of ink left on the plate after the print was pulled. Another sheet of soaked and blotted paper was pressed against the plate to make a faint but suggestive ghost print.First washes of watercolor on the monotype after the ink was dry, followed by colored pencil.
Read to Me 4x4 Monotype, Watercolor & Colored PencilI've included a few more process images in this post in response to emails from new subscribers asking for details on how to make a monotype. There are lots more process shots in the archives of this blog - you can search for monotype to see them. In the meantime, here are the basics from this one:Black etching ink rolled out on glass, with a brayer, a phone book and a thin plate of copper.Rolling ink on the plate with the brayer.After pulling the image out of the ink - a subtractive process, using pastel stomps, rolled paper towel and q-tips.Pulling the monotype from the plate after a trip through the press.Pulling a ghost print from the plate, since there was enough ink to suggest the image on a second sheet of paper.After the ink is dry on the monotype, adding watercolor to start the final process. Colored pencil was added later.
Brain Breakfast 4.5 x 6.5 Monotype Ghost, Watercolor & Colored PencilAfter I pulled this figurative monotype last Fall, I had enough ink on the plate to lift two faint ghost prints. Brain Breakfast started as the ghost in the center of the line up below; I added watercolor washes, and colored pencil on top of the ink this weekend.
Iris 5x5.5 Monotype Ghost Print with Watercolor & Colored PencilSoldI rolled the ink on the plate pretty heavy for this one, and got two ghosts after pulling the monotype. You can still see remnants of ink on the plate (below) after three trips through the press. Iris is from the first ghost print. The monotype and the 2nd ghost are in my flat files, waiting for whimsy & fun with other mediums.
Mae & Tess 6 x 9 Monotype Ghost on Arches 88 paper with colored pencil My paternal grandmother and her sister posed on the bumper of my grandfather's car in 1925. I love the reference photo for this monotype. These women had a huge influence on me: two of my dearly missed, most favorite people, ever.
Blue Boy Reading 6x9 Blue Field Monotype with Watercolor & Colored Pencil This is my second monotype of AJC in this pose. Both were pulled a year ago, and this one in particular was begging for other mediums on top of the saturated blue, so I worked on it this week up at the Boddy Gallery. The choice of color had more to do with using up ink that another artist had already rolled out, but since blue is one of his favorite colors, I went with it. :o)
Sea Grass 4.25 x 5.25 Watercolor & Colored Pencil on paper Available here.This was a warm-up after a week of missed painting while hanging art & sitting at the Descanso Gardens show. I've got a table set up for on site doodling now, and I'm looking forward to making some art at the Gardens during the exhibit.
Sea Grass 4.25 x 5.25 Watercolor & Colored Pencil on paper Available here.This was a warm-up after a week of missed painting while hanging art & sitting at the Descanso Gardens show. I've got a table set up for on site doodling now, and I'm looking forward to making some art at the Gardens during the exhibit.
Vintage Sink, 4 x 4 Watercolor & Colored PencilSoldFrom a polaroid of my LA apartment bathroom sink at dawn fifteen years ago.I liked the way the light was reflected off the pitted porcelain and chipped chrome. The photo is un-remarkable, but something about the composition appeals to me.
Red Hair, Pink Rose 4 x 4.5 watercolor & colored pencil SoldThis is one of my favorite models, A.M. and I think I've either painted or made prints (monotypes) from this photo session a dozen times. I think I'm due for another very soon. :-)
Freshly Tilled Soil 4 x 6 Monotype Mixed MediaThis Arizona landscape was pulled from a big 3-ring binder, filled with beautiful photos my friend Vicki Leigh snapped, packaged and mailed to me. All of her day to day adventures, garden discoveries, and encounters with light, landscape and people are captured in her camera with an artists' eye. Every year, I get random, surprise care packages in the mail, filled with photos organized by subject to use as painting and printmaking inspiration. How cool is that? Check out her stained glass blog (and her Etsy store) in my links.The monotype, fresh off the press.After adding Watercolor & Colored Pencil
Hey, Wanna Split a Sandwich? II, 5 x 7 Monotype Watercolor & Colored Pencil.This is the dark field monotype I made after pulling a trace monotype from the same plate here.After the ink was dry, I used watercolors and Prismacolors to finish the print. It'll be exhibited in a week at the San Diego Artwalk, in Little Italy. If you're in the area, stop by and say hello. (Booth-125 on Beech Street)
Leda & Zeus, 5 x 7 monotype Watercolor & Colored Pencil.The print, fresh from the press. This was created on a copper plate, using Daniel Smith oil-based etching ink (a blend of black & process blue), and printed on Arches Cover printmaking paper that was soaked in water and blotted before going through the press. (Big thanks to JMC for the lovely reference photo of the swan.)On the art table - after playing with colored pencil and watercolors.
Be very careful when applying colored pencil to your paper. Do not overdue it. Your paper can only hold so much of the colored pencil medium before it no longer sticks to the papers surface. You also risk tearing your paper as well.
Click here for more colored pencil tips from CreativeSpotlite.com
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Be careful that you do not put too many layers of the colored pencil medium on your paper. Eventually your paper will not be able to hold the medium as it will become saturated. You will risk tearing your paper as well.
My brothers used to climb into Grandpa's hip-waders and hunting shirts, and don his fly-fishing hats to hike down to the pond to catch frogs. Our family photo albums are dotted with poses by the pool; smiling boys, draped with frogs on heads, shoulders and hands. At dinner time, the boys came inside, and the newly named buddies hopped back down the hill towards the pond.Frog Hunting, 8.5 x 8.5 Watercolor & Colored Pencil
This is a light-field monotype. I started with a clean, un-inked, un-etched plate - in this case, plexiglass - and added colored pigment to the surface. (Most of the monotypes I've posted here are dark-field; starting with a dark, ink-coated plate, and pulling the ink [light areas] off with my fingers and assorted tools.)I used Caran D'Ache water soluble crayons to sketch the face and the tangle of hair, seaweed and fish. I added watercolors randomly, which will repel and pool on plexi, but they "stick" to the crayon lines a little bit, so you get an impressionistic effect.The print, above, after it dried, and below, finished.Mermaid Hair, 7 x 8 Monotype, Colored Pencil and WatercolorsSoldThis piece was also submitted for perusal in Illustration Friday, where the topic this week is: Mask
I found an old photo of a house in Santa Monica, taken in the early 1950's in my Great-Uncle Nick's photo album. I've sketched it, and painted it, and I'm still looking at it, so I figured it was time to make a print of it.No one in the family can remember who's house it is, but I'm pretty certain, based on multiple images, that they all spent time there. It's funny how we document our lives with photos, and then forget to label the moments, trusting our memories to hold all that data.Santa Monica House, 4.5 x 5 Monotype & Colored PencilAvailable here.
This is a small zinc plate wearing faint remnants of ink after three trips through the press. The top print is the darkest, and the two ghost prints under it are waiting for an art supply spa treatment.The lightest ghost was printed on Arches88, a smooth, bright white, printmaking paper with no sizing in it. You can't use watercolor on it, unless you like to paint on paper towels, since it's about that absorbent.It's a lovely paper for colored pencils - the plate-finish is silky under the pigments, and you can layer the colors on the sheet almost like watercolors.Connecticut Pasture, 3 x 6 Monotype Ghost & Colored PencilBid on it here.
This is a monotype done with black etching ink on a zinc plate. After the cityscape was pulled out of the ink, I top-rolled a thin, transparent film of golden ink over the plate. All the areas I cleared down to the metal filled with this color. Before I printed the plate, I wiped the sky clean, so it would be the only area without the gold tint.After the ink was dry, I added color & details with colored pencil. The view was through an apartment window on a trip to Florence, Italy.Duomo, 4.5 x 6.5 Monotype (Sold)
This painting started as a sketch from a photo, back-lit by a cloudy-day window in Rockport, Massachusetts in the 80's. The drawing has been in my flat files for that long too. I like working on older art; there's an inherent permission to goof off and experiment with line, color, temperature, atmosphere, etc..Attentive, 10 x 9 Watercolor & Colored Pencil on ArchesAvailable here.
This little watercolor was mistakenly done on drawing paper (no sizing), so the first washes of color spread like beads on a wood floor. No edges and faded color after the pigment sank into the paper. Time for colored pencil playtime.Reading on Sunday, 4.5 x 6.5 Watercolor & Colored PencilThe topic for Illustration Friday on Feb 23, 2007 is Communication.
This trio of viscosity monotypes were pulled from the same 3 x 6 plate, coated with layers of blue, red and yellow ink - one rolled out on top of the other - in altered states of viscosity (a fluid's resistance to flow). You can add burnt plate oil, or petroleum products like miracle gel to change the thickness and stickiness of the inks, so the colors resist each other till they're squished on the press. It's always a surprise. :-)The middle print was the first pull. I added inked leaves on the 2nd pull - on the left. The print on the right was the last one. Lots of color & temperature variation from the same three layers of color on the plate. This is the middle print (above), with watercolor and colored pencil added. Done yesterday while all the pre-oscar hubbub was in full swing. Oscar Night, 3 x 6 Monotype & Mixed Media
This is a sheet of acrylic, with an image scratched into the surface with an etching needle. Since no acid is used to bite the lines into the plate, it's called a dry-point etching. I used tightly rolled "tubes" of felt to push different colors of etching ink into the grooves before printing (called "a la poupee"). This is the first print, and I'll go back and add more details and dark tones to the plate before printing it again to see how it's coming along later this week.In the meantime, the first proof was colored with prismacolors, and it's hanging in the studio.Bird on her Shoulder 5 x 7 Dry Point Etching & Colored PencilAvailable here.
