Jennifer Zalewski Studio

It’s tough being frustrated. For the past year or so I’ve really been struggling with my linocuts and woodcuts, and after muffing up my most recent woodcut- gah!!- I wanted to throw the towel in. Relief printmaking isn’t a forgiving process, unfortunately, and I make lots of mistakes. So, on the verge of an emotional and creative meltdown (…maybe already starting down that road?!?), I decided to start experimenting with other media and processes. So maybe starting this new blog, at the same time as totally making-over my life (new job, new house)… was a good thing.

Anyway, it paved the way for playing with the Monotype process.

I admit: I’m not good at experimenting. I want to do thinks right and perfectly from the get-go. I get super frustrated and angry when things don’t come out as planned (endearing personality traits, I know (lol). But I’ve persevered, and have nicely enough been having a ton of fun.

There are a few different ways to make a monotype (as I’ve learned) but the basic jist of the game is that you make a painting, put a piece of paper up against the wet surface, and then run it all through a press. The painting is transferred to the paper, with the pressure of the press (or a baren, or rolling pin, etc if you don’t have a press) making interesting textures in the transfer.

Here are my first attempts (warning, they majorly stink!):

This doodle of Lucy (or the muppet version of Lucy, lol) was done in the subtractive method. That means I rolled my piece of plexiglass with ink, and then used paper towels and rags to wipe away the ink and manipulate it into a painting. I put a piece of paper against it, ran it through my etching press, and wall-ah- the finished Monotype. I used my ol’ Daniel Smith water-solubles for this.

Second try: A green Lucy and a green rabbit. I used the Additive method – meaning I painted directly on the plexiglass, then put paper up against the ink and ran it through the press. I felt like I used too LITTLE ink on the Lucy, so when I tried the rabbit I over-painted, and the press squashed the ink a bit. Interesting. Used DS water soluble ink again.

This (above) started out as a doodle of Cliff, but ended up being a kooky greyhound mix I think, LOL- monotype using the additive method, then because the doodle looked a bit lost-? I used a black Sharpie to sketch in details. Believe me it looked better Pre-Sharpie. This was done with my new Akua Intaglio ink. I added Blender Modifier to it, so it was easy to paint on my plexiglass plate with a brush.

Here’s another monotype- again, additive method. I didn’t add Blender medium so it was harder to brush on the plate with a paint brush.

I have to say… monotypes are superbly fun and addictive. Here was last night’s SERIOUS attempt… I tried to take a bunch of pics to document:

First, I covered my 18 x 24 piece of plexiglass with several layers of Akua Intaglio ink (I realized later I forgot to add blender, oops).

Then I used the tip of a palette knife to sketch a preliminary drawing in the ink. I began using a paper towel and Q-tips to wipe away ink and create Clifford’s shape:

Wiping, wiping and more wiping! If I made a mistake and wiped away too much, I just used my brayer to roll ink over the mistake. Instant “do over!” I can’t do that with linocuts… this was totally awesome and freeing.

After lots and lots of wiping… my painting on the plexi plate is done and ready to be printed:

At this point, I was so super-happy I can’t tell you. This was so spontaneous compared to linocutting and woodblock cutting… so liberating. I love that I didn’t have to pre-plan with tons of prelim sketches, that I could make mistakes and re-do as I went. Super happy time at Dog Hill Studio, lemme tell you!

So now I take a piece of Stonehenge paper and press it against the wet plate. I didn’t use a press, just my marble rolling pin– and then peeled the paper off. Wall-ah!:

(Sorry for the crummy photo. The sheet is so large I had to stand on a chair and look down at it, and even then I couldn’t get it right in the viewfinder. )

There are a few things I’d like to change, but for my first serious monotype? I think it came out pretty nifty! Look forward to making more. In fact, as we speak… I have ink in my studio calling my name. Ciao for now.