[image_with_animation image_url=”7183″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I’ve been making more monotypes. I can’t seem to put them down. The exciting discovery of what comes out of the press is as neurologically rewarding as opening wrapped presents. Better maybe. The invitation of the ghosted plate, cold blankness eliminated, grey tones and shapes invite me to create again, and again, and again.
Monotypes are so similar to paint that I feel I already have some skills, but they are a bit like painting semi-blind. I can see the ink on the plate, but it’s darker than it will be printed, so it’s like … well … painting in the dark. I can hold the plexiglass up to the light and see some of what I’m doing because the light shines through the area I’ve removed ink from and remains black in the areas that carry heavy ink, but the print is always a surprise. I haven’t timed myself and every time I do it I completely lose track of time, but I’m guessing I spend about 20 minutes painting a plate. Honestly it could be more. I really have no idea. But it feels like a sketch, not a “serious” work, so all the experimentation and gambling feels low stakes and high rewards. And since monotypes lend themselves so gracefully to top layers of pastels and paint, I feel another layer coming.
Degas used monotypes as first layers for drawings and paintings. He’d print one or two impressions from a plate, the first one being dark and inky, the second “ghost” image light and grey. Here are some examples of Degas’ monotypes with pastel and oil paint.
Let’s do something simple and specific today: Draw this photograph using continuous line. Continuous line is when you don’t pick up your drawing tool once you’ve started. You can speed up, slow down, or stop, but you don’t pick up your tool. You can have up to 3 continuous lines in one picture, if you …
Gallery hours: Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM Evening hours: Tuesday and Wednesday from 5-7 PM Admission is free. The M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery is located at the north end of Seattle Central’s Atrium Cafeteria in the main campus building at the corner of Broadway and Pine. The art …
High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased …
In recent V. Notes I talked about how artists learn and get inspired by studying works by other artists. I posted transcriptions by Jonathan Harkham, and I posted Frank Auerbach’s Transcriptions after Titian. In art, to transcribe is to copy or record information in a different form than the original. To transcribe a painting or …
Degas’ Pastel Over Monotypes
[image_with_animation image_url=”7183″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I’ve been making more monotypes. I can’t seem to put them down. The exciting discovery of what comes out of the press is as neurologically rewarding as opening wrapped presents. Better maybe. The invitation of the ghosted plate, cold blankness eliminated, grey tones and shapes invite me to create again, and again, and again.
Monotypes are so similar to paint that I feel I already have some skills, but they are a bit like painting semi-blind. I can see the ink on the plate, but it’s darker than it will be printed, so it’s like … well … painting in the dark. I can hold the plexiglass up to the light and see some of what I’m doing because the light shines through the area I’ve removed ink from and remains black in the areas that carry heavy ink, but the print is always a surprise. I haven’t timed myself and every time I do it I completely lose track of time, but I’m guessing I spend about 20 minutes painting a plate. Honestly it could be more. I really have no idea. But it feels like a sketch, not a “serious” work, so all the experimentation and gambling feels low stakes and high rewards. And since monotypes lend themselves so gracefully to top layers of pastels and paint, I feel another layer coming.
Degas used monotypes as first layers for drawings and paintings. He’d print one or two impressions from a plate, the first one being dark and inky, the second “ghost” image light and grey. Here are some examples of Degas’ monotypes with pastel and oil paint.
[image_with_animation image_url=”7182″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7180″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7193″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
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