Two Dimensional View

More monotypes today. My goal today was to try to achieve some depth. To leave the 2D realm behind and see if I can make pieces that you can peer down into.

Mixed results so far.

More here.

Grip It and Rip It

This is another of my gelatin monotypes. Fun with geometry!

The gelatin print process is an interesting exercise in envisioning the result of various sequences of events. Mentally keeping track of the probable outcome of alternative catenations is a real trick. Because (naturally!) as the process unfolds in real time, who the heck has time to keep notes? Yeah, okay, hold on. What did I do first on this one? Oh ha. Best to just let 'er rip.

More monotypes are in the portfolio here.

Jelly Belly

These are monotypes made with my brand spanking-new gelatin printing plate. Great fun and the potential to make a whopping big mess.

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My portfolio of Gelatin Monotypes is here.

Magenta Man

I attended a meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association this weekend, in London Town (which is just south of Annapolis). Just to see what they were all about. They are all about oil painting. Oh well. But the demonstrations and panel discussions were interesting and the people were very nice. I added my name to the e-mail list for periodic "paint out" field trips in the DC area. Maybe I can sneak in among them with just my sketching paraphernalia. Maybe camouflage it in a jazzy pochade box. Maybe pretend with my watercolors or gouache.

Above is a Metro sketch done on a piece of paper that I had splotched months ago with a watercolor monotype, very abstract. I liked the colors so I cut the paper to size and bound it in my everyday sketchbook. The man looked very solemn and abstracted. So it's a fit!

Motto-of-the-Day: Incorporate indeterminacy.

Bottles on Blue

Here is one of my monoprints from this weekend's class with Penny Barringer at Discover Graphics Atelier at the Art League. Cool stuff!!! This one is done using the viscosity method of creating monotypes. I liked the process and I enjoyed the results. We also tried watercolor transfer, chine colle (my least favorite -- I just don't "get" collage, I guess), the reduction method, and the "ala poupee" method of applying the inks. Ala poupee is basically fingerpainting on the plate, a thing that is great fun. (My fingernails will never be clean again!)

But the viscosity method was my favorite. I'm not sure why. I think it was the way the differently inked areas looked when printed. Very lush and luxuriant next to very flat and pure. I am going to experiment to see if I can create viscosity-like results with the water-based inks. According to the information on the Akua website, it is possible. We'll see.