"Over and Under" (Mono Printing Demo)

(image one)

(image two)

This is only a demo piece with an interesting title. In many circles, "over and under" is referring to a shotgun! In this case, I am referring to layering techniques with text pages and mono printed rice papers.

The very first thing I created was the black mono print with a simply line drawing of two apples. This is just an extension from yesterday showing another possibility. If I were creating it for a final piece, I might have taken more care and included a bit more detail, but it does show you what you can do while practicing your drawing at the same time.

This type of printing and layering is quite dependent on the amount of paint used and the amount of paint removed before printing. I had on thin latex gloves, so after drawing the apples, I dipped my finger in water and removed more of the paint. (a kleenex was also used) Other lines were created and more paint removed. It was then dried and sprayed with spray acrylic coating.

A piece this size (8" x 10") really illustrates the fine quality of the print compared to the way it would have looked if printed with acrylics. After cropping the print with the apples, I adhered the text and mono printed red papers as seen in image one. This would be the "under" part of "over and under". It is also good to remember that the rice paper does not become translucent until sprayed with acrylic coating.

After the apple print was adhered over the text and red print, I dried it again and sprayed again. I then printed out some text on silk tissue paper and selected three segments of the red printed papers. By echoing the lines and shapes that were already there, I was able to establish some more shapes and have a very interesting division of space. This was the "over" portion of "over and under".

Knowing the next steps to take in this type of layering is informed by what is already happening in the mono print. Hopefully you can see that the red printed papers were placed where they completed and complemented the shapes in the black print with the apples. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.