Brittany P. Adkison Illustration

Thursday, June 27, 2013

How to Make a Monotype Print

Step 1: Develop your thoughts into a tight sketch with color, as shown above.

Step 2: Trace your tight sketch onto a large piece of primed wood. I suggest using Oak as it doesn't chip like other wood, thus you're able to obtain fine detail in the cut.

Step 3: Carve away!

Step 4: With a sheet of clear Mylar on top of your woodcut, trace your image. After that's competed use your tight drawing as reference and block in color using oil paint.

Step 5: After you finish blocking in color, it's time to soak your paper. In this case I used Aches Rives BFK paper and my professional method of soaking it was my bathtub.

Step 7: Once the paper is completely soaked, set it in between two sheets of cotton based paper to absorb the excess liquid. I used a rolling pin to roll over the three sheets in order to excrete an equal amount of water for the surface area.

Step 7: Carefully place your colored Mylar image, color side facing down, onto your damp Rives paper.

Step 8: Using a hard brayer, roll over your image with pressure. Be careful not to move the mylar to prevent smudging and acquire crisp edges.

Step 9: Squirt oils (I used black as my choice line color) on to a palette and mix a bit of drying medium in. I suggest Cobalt Drier as the choice medium for this project. Roll your brayer back and forth many times until you have an extremely thin coat of paint equally covering your brayer.

Step 10: Roll your brayer over the woodcut, numerous times in all directions so the surface area is covered in paint.

Step 11: Press your paint covered woodcut down on top of your monotype. Be sure that it is facing the right direction prior! Carefully apply pressure.

Step 12: Remove the woodcut and there you have a beautiful print! I adjusted the dried print digitally as shown below.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Blue Project

Designed for the Malibu Blue Project, a wonderful non-profit dedicated to protecting our oceans.
Concept by Steven Lippman.
For more info on design use go to: http://malibublueproject.org/?p=987