“Trace monotypes are made by laying paper down on an inked piece of plexiglass, then drawing a design on the back of the paper. The drawing tool presses the paper against the ink, making a dark line on the front of the paper.”
– Ruthie V, circa yesterday
Today I found an artist who used both the trace, and the print from the press to make a positive/negative figure study.
Madeline Roseske, monoprint (positive & negative)
A positive from the figure drawing teacher: The contour lines are a beautiful balance with the textured tones. Take another look at that shading. To make it, the artist ran their finger (or another soft tool?) across the surface of paper, not seeing the result until the page was lifted. Soft pressure makes these marks, but the artist couldn’t see what they were doing until it was done. Drawing blind! Just one move made the spine, and it worked. Elegant.
A negative from the figure drawing teacher: Just because you can draw the whole detailed foot, doesn’t mean you should. I realize the bravery involved in drawing hands and feet, typically people skip them out of fear, but in this case the wiggly little beans distract from the graceful simplified form, and this print would have been quite lovely without it.
Those ghosted square shaped marks – Nikki Barber, do you think these are brayer marks from uneven inking? Or something else?
Sundays are observational drawing day in our 30 day creative challenge. We’re almost done with the month! Seeing things from various points of view is a great way to feed yourself ideas, challenge what you think you know, and surprise yourself with something new. Think of the Indian story about the six blind monks who …
What comes to mind when you think of Williem De Kooning? I have never seen a De Kooning in person. Viewing a work in person is nothing like viewing it on a screen or on a printed page, so to be able to know a work, to be able to talk about a work, I …
Last Saturday was our Draw like Diebenkorn class. Since Diebenkorn himself was unable to join us (technical issues with zoom), I stepped in to facilitate with slide shows and observations about how Diebenkorn uses form and line to lead us around the composition. I set up still lives that were Diebenkorn inspired, and we had …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8191″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Nikki Barber Printmaking in Thailand Our wonderful printmaking instructor Nikki Barber is on another artist’s pilgrimage to Northern Thailand. She’s spending one month as a studio-based artist in residence at Rajamangala University in Chiang Mai. There, she is able to interact directly with students, faculty, and Thai artists, experiencing the technical differences …
Monotype, positive/negative
Yesterday I talked about trace monotypes:
Today I found an artist who used both the trace, and the print from the press to make a positive/negative figure study.
A positive from the figure drawing teacher: The contour lines are a beautiful balance with the textured tones. Take another look at that shading. To make it, the artist ran their finger (or another soft tool?) across the surface of paper, not seeing the result until the page was lifted. Soft pressure makes these marks, but the artist couldn’t see what they were doing until it was done. Drawing blind! Just one move made the spine, and it worked. Elegant.
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