Studio blog: pastel on monotype
I had a fantastic day at PrintFest in Ulverston on Saturday, where I attended two workshops taught by Alex Jakob-Whitworth.
The afternoon workshop was pastel on monotype, a really interesting process and apparently following in the footsteps of Degas who used a similar process. I can see so many possibilities with this technique, so I’m definitely going to experiment further.
A direct monotype print is created first, by laying a piece of tracing paper on to an inked surface and drawing directly on the back of the tracing paper.
This method of drawing picks up ink from the inked surface and transfers it to the tracing paper. As well as the lines you have drawn, ink is also picked up in other areas of the tracing paper, creating soft areas of tone, as shown in the photo above. In the first photo on the left, you may just be able to pick out the bolder lines of my tree drawings amongst the tone.
Once the ink has dried, you can draw over the top of it with soft pastel. The pastel will adhere to the inked areas and will be only faintly visible on the blank areas. This creates a wonderfully patterned effect, especially if you leave some of the ink to show through.
As the piece is created on tracing paper, it looks different according to what type of paper is laid underneath it. In the photos above, the piece is shown with some of the sepia printmaking ink that I transferred onto lightly toned paper in the middle photo and in the right photo with just a plain piece of white paper.
My next step will be to experiment with creating layers of collage, paint and tone, all to go underneath the tracing paper, and to see how they affect the piece.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable workshop and I’ve already been experimenting more – stay tuned.
