Student Linocuts Over Monotypes

My 2D mixed media class just finished a 3 week project where the kids:


1. First drew on a 4" x 6" piece of paper with pencil, then put the drawing under plexiglass and made monotypes, focusing on filling in the major areas with color.

2. Transferred the drawing to a linoblock and carved. NOTE: If you do this, be sure to transfer the drawing onto the block in a way so that when it is printed it will be the same orientation as the monotype prints. Otherwise the linocut print image will be backwards compared with the colored portion, as can be seen in the wild cat print below (which, incidentally, still turned out rather cool looking.)

3.) Print the carved linoblocks in black over the color monotypes.

I get a big kick out the fact that the most impressive prints were done by the littlest kid - a 6-year-old girl who did a print of her doll "Sophia".

Student Monotypes with Watercolor and Sharpie Drawing

I taught a new monotype lesson for my 2nd-6th grade students in 2D Mixed Media class at the University City Arts League. I had the student make pencil drawings, then slip those drawings under a piece of plexiglass, paint it in with watercolors, the print. After the prints completely dried the kids took Sharpie markers and re-drew over top the monotypes, sometimes choosing to radically change the drawing in response to the colors and textures on the paper. I love how these turned out and I'm definitely doing this project again in the future.

Dinosaur Monotype

Well, the school year has certainly hit the ground running. My mind is packed full of curriculum I've been designing and trying to learn the names of all my new students.

This is a monotype of a dinosaur I made this week. I don't have much to say about it other than I like it and it was fun to make.

"Fish in Vase" Monotype

9" x 12"
Createx Monotype Colors on 140 lb. watercolor paper

Inspired by the work I had my young students making last week, I made some of my own layered-primary-color monotypes. Not satisfied with any of them, but it still was a useful exercise and I'd like to try again soon. This was the best of the lot.

Layered Monotypes by 3rd and 4th Graders

These are monotypes by students in my 2D Mixed Media after school class at the University City Arts League. Since it was a holiday and the public schools were closed I only had three students show up. But I liked their work so much I had to post it here. 

For the first layer, printed in blue, the students were instructed to cut out a shape which they taped to a piece of plexiglass. Then they rolled up the plexiglass with ink and removed the cut shape before printing. 

For the second layer, printed in red, the students rolled up the plexiglass plates in ink and then drew into them with Q-tips, then printed over the first print. 




For the final layer, printed in yellow, the students arranged torn pieces and strips of masking tape on the plexiglass before rolling it up with ink, removing the tape, and printing. 

I made an example along with them, but their work turned out much more interesting, as often happens in the classroom. That said, I think I feel inspired by my students to try this again tonight in my studio. 

Monotypes by 3rd and 4th Graders

This week I had some of my summer camp students make monotypes. I had them hike up to a pond and creek with drawing boards and do some drawings from life outside.

For the monotype prints I had the kids put their drawings or photographs I took on our hike under a piece of thick transparency paper and paint in the drawing/photographs using Createx monotypes colors. The kids painted quickly and kept the paint wet so they could print on dry paper. They did the pressing with their hands.

This first image -by Dean whose other work I wrote about last week - is of one of the sheets of transparency paper after he printed it. It was so beautiful, we both considered it its own work of art.

The rest of the photos are monotype prints by other students in the class.

Summer Camp Kids' Monotype Prints

These are some Monotype prints my 3rd grade summer camp kids made. They used Blick's water-based block printing ink and painted on plexiglass before printing by hand.

"Sitting Nude" Gary Comoglio

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More of Gary Comoglio's prints and paintings can be found at the artist's website.

The presence of an ottoman, and the fact of her nakedness tell me I'm wrong, but I'm still convinced that the subject of this print is waiting at a bus stop. Well, okay, if not a bus stop specifically, at least waiting. And bored, at that.

I am not bored, but I am also waiting. Waiting for this kaleidoscopic vision of her body created by light reflected on planes of flesh to transform with the next sigh, next itch, next shifting of her weight into the next most comfortable position. Waiting for the light to change into something less spectacular and intense, but perhaps more complex and subtle.

It is amazing how bored we can be, even as fireworks go off all around us.

"Lysistrata" (Ballerina On Staircase)

This is a little monotype (image is approximately 6" x 9") I did of Lysistrata walking down the steps to her ballet class. I did 6 monotypes in 3 hours during a workshop I was leading, and I was the most satisfied with this one. I used Createx Monotype Colors on a plexiglass sheet and applied the ink with paint brushes.

The thing with monotypes is that the first one always sucks and I have to work at them for at least 2-3 hours just to produce anything decent. I would love to spend a week doing nothing but monotypes for 4 hours after breakfast and another 4 hours after lunch. I get chills thinking about the amount of colorful, expressive, and spontaneous imagery which would result. But that's a lot of time and money for supplies. Ah, plans for retirement...

Monotype: "Eulabee"

Monotype (water-based inks on Rives BFK)
5" x 7" (image) 6.5" x 10" (paper)

I recently taught an intro to monotypes workshop to a group of teenagers, and so to prepare I did a bunch of monotypes in my studio. It had been years since I made a monotype, and I was never that into it. I made six pretty awful images before I created this lovely little sketch of my younger daughter.

I should do more of these. A lot more.


I should.