Dropped the children off at school for 8am – the youngest was going on a school trip – then went printing. Today’s teacher was a bit dull and talked for the first hour. I struggled to pay attention, and rather wished I was at home in bed. The teacher kept changing her mind about what we were going to do, and instead of gathering us round for demonstrations, she just stood at the benches rolling ink and shouting instructions to us at the table. She did some of her own prints in the afternoon as well, rather than focussing on tutoring us.
Like the cardboard printing technique, I didn’t understand quickly what mono printing was best suited to. She demonstrated a technique where she rolled the ink over Japanese paper with flat objects underneath, like leaves and card cutouts. I liked the images she got, but she said, “Well, let’s start. I don’t think we need to do that Japanese paper technique. Let’s just get on with the other monoprints.”
I had a go at the Japanese paper technique anyway, but learned you need to have simple objects with a clear shape. I put lots of objects with subtle textures under my first effort, like strips of linen and dried moss and a feather. It turned out an inky mush. The second effort wasn’t much better, but I liked some of the marks and feel I could have carried on with this technique
I started with a doodle, as the teacher instructed, but I’m not comfortable drawing from my head, unless it’s abstract. I’m just not good at it. I did a cup of tea, because that’s what I felt like I needed at the time. Not a motivation for great art. I battled away to get a decent image, and these were the best:
Then I started on what I understand to be monoprints, where you place objects on paper and print. These worked better:
All this is not very art school, where you choose a topic you’re interested, like ageing or nature conservation or whatever, and explore ways to express what you want to say about it. Here it was, “Throw a few things together and see if you can make them look pretty.” When you do that, you produce an output that you can pay as little attention to as a graphic design. It’s just a “Oh, that looks nice”, then move on.