Demonstration of Printing Monoprints by
Using Japanese Baren
I use a piece of Plexiglas as my plate for making the print.
I coat the Plexiglas with Createx Monoprint Base. one can also use full
strength white dishwashing soap but the soap does alter the chemicals of
the print paper somewhat and the paint may not transfer to the paper evenly.
I used Createx Monoprint water based paint for this demonstration but
often use watercolors directly from the tubes. I apply the paint
with a rubber brayer and blend the colors of paint with the with the brayer
to coat the plate evenly. Then I use paper towels, Q-Tips, credit
card, pieces of mat board to make texture in the paint and to remove paint
where I want the paper to remain white, i.e. tree trunks, limbs, water
lines.
The paint must dry completely on the plate. Then I apply a mat
cut from poster board and place it on the Plexiglas and tape it to the
edges so it wont slip. The purpose of the mat is to keep a clean
white border around the print. This isn't necessary if you want to
mat the finished print up to the edge of the painting but the white
border adds to the finished look.
The next step is to soak the print paper in a water bath for 15 to
20 minutes. I use Rives, Blockingford, and Arches print paper as
well as oriental papers. This demonstration is using Blockingford
print paper.
Carefully lift the paper from the water and lay in on blotter paper
or clean bath towels and cover with same until paper loses its sheen but
is still completely damp. The paper must be damp throughout in order
to achieve the unique texture characteristic of prints.
The above picture shows the Plexiglas face up on a table with the damp
print paper placed on top. Then I use another piece of paper or poster
board on top of the damp print paper to prevent the paper from tearing
when I hand rub it with the Japanese baren shown in the picture.
You can also use a bottom of a large wooden spoon, or a wash cloth to rub
the print. Pressure must be placed evenly all over the paper.
You can very carefully fold back the print paper to check how evenly
the paint is transferring to the paper. The plate is on the right
of this photo with the print folded back on the left. Do not lift
the print completely off the plate until satisfied with the results of
rubbing.
This photo shows a small portion of the print on the left, the Plexiglas
on the right and removing the mat. You can see the difference in
the amount of paint left on the plate by looking at the area the mat was
covering.
This is the original print pulled from the plate. Many times there
is still enough paint on the plate to attempt to pull a second print.
(It is still a true monoprint as the ghost print would not be exactly the
same.)
This is the ghost print from the original plate. You can see the
colors are lighter and softer than the first print. Sometime the
second print even better for this reason, other times the second attempt
may be a complete failure if not enough paint is left on the plate.
I can usually tell after pulling the first print if want to use another
piece of print paper and attempt a second.
This is the first print framed. You may notice that I enhanced
areas with colored watercolor pencils on dry paper. I lost the clean
white paper around the print by carelessness and had to mat the painting
up to the edges. (This is a computer frame which does not show the
matting)
This is the second or ghost print also enhanced with more yellow
and violet colors using watercolor pencils on dry paper.
Now the question I am usually asked is: why go to all the trouble
of painting on a plate and then printing it onto another paper, why not
just paint directly on the paper with a brush. Well, there is no
way a brush can duplicate the delicate lines and texture that is achieved
by the paint soaking completely into the wet fibers of the print paper.
For a closer view of the texture, click on the picture below for a larger
view.
Click for a large view
