Monotype: Op-Ed Page

Op-Ed Page 4x4 Monotype Ghost with colored pencil

Available in my Etsy Shop.  

Sold

Process shots start at the bottom of this post - below.

After the second run through the press, I pulled a sweet little ghost print.
When the ink is dry, this is a lovely under-painting for other media;
colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, pastel, etc. For the piece above,  I
used colored pencil.

This is the monotype (sold) next to the plate. See all that ink still on the plate?
That means I can lay another sheet of paper on the plate, tighten the pressure
on the press, and pull what's called a ghost print. A fainter version of the monotype.

The ink is still wet, so running the plate through a press against paper
will transfer the image from the plate to the paper, with all sorts of little
mark-making & ink surprises from the pressure as it rolls through.

After removing ink in a subtractive process to produce my little newspaper reader.

The ink covered plate is now ready for a little drawing, scrapping and blotting.

Rolling black, oil-based etching ink onto a copper plate.

Studio & Art happenings in between posts

Art Quote

I did all sorts of things. I purchased a goose from which I made a picture. I made a sheep picture.  I became the owner of a sheep. Do you know anything about a lone, solitary sheep?  Well, I will tell you something - that while a flock of sheep is the personification of peace, docility and all that is quietude - from my (unscientific) study, I have come to the conclusion that one sheep has none of the qualities of a flock of sheep - no, not one. Except maybe their stupidity. One sheep is not "sheepish", no, he is a most stubborn, balky, run away, befuddled animal you can imagine. I have had other animals to serve as models, but never an animal that furnished as many alarms, by day and night, as that "peaceful" sheep. He was escaping from his stable (stable by courtesy), breaking his tether, trespassing in neighbor's gardens, and eating down the very things they prized the most, or the contrary of all activity - refusing to be lead to pasture and causing a giggling crowd to collect - as if by magic. To the question of those on the outside who could not see what was going on - it was "Oh! It's Henry Tanner's sheep. " 

In spite of the difficulties, I got a sheep picture and finally traded it for a pair of antlers worth ten dollars. I was happy to trade it for anything. It seemed to me that everything but pictures had a certain market value. I was sure I could sell the antlers for five dollars - at least. I doubted very much whether I could sell the picture. It may be that I should have refused to sell the picture for that sum, but after having traded it, I should have been glad to sell the object which I had acquired by trade for five dollars. I had been saved, at any rate, the depressed feeling of selling a picture for 10 per cent of what it had actually cost me.

The World's Work; The Story of an Artist's Life ~ Walter Hines Page (1909), transcribing letters from the artist Henry Ossawa Tanner