Final Monotype Class

Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and yesterday was the last day of our monotype printmaking class. It was one of the few techniques that I wasn't familiar with. I always just figured, if you're only gonna make 1 of something, I'd rather not make it as hard as possible on myself. It wasn't that bad though, and even though I would still rather just do a painting or a drawing or whatever, it's nice that I have options now I guess.

This was from last week's class. Man with Candle_Monotype_2025

Man, not even the picture I took of this thing yesterday came out well. Started this one last week, and was looking forward to a final color run of blue to finish it off. I spent a good 30 or so minutes marking up the plate with where I would need to ink and where not too, and how heavily. I finally felt like I had made a solid plan and was ready to go, but somehow, no clue how, I wiped off the majority of the actual permanent marker on the plate. I potentially could have calmly cleaned the plate, put it over the print, and retraced everything onto it, but fuck all that. I decided my time was better spent over-dramatically cleaning the plate while making Napoleon Dynamite noises. Then I just stopped working on printmaking all together, washed my hands of monotypes forever, and just started drawing.

I mean, for real, check last week's pic, it was so much better. I'll probably finish it someday, but who knows...

After letting me brood for an appropriate amount of time, the instructor came up and asked if I wanted to try one where I just applied ink directly to the plate, so that I could make use of my drawing and painting skills instead of worrying about "the process". I decided to not be an asshole and agreed to give it a try.

This was what I came up with. It took so much longer than it should have, but I think it's decent enough to sign and edition, so here it is.

Overall it was a great experience and I wish that it was a little longer. I got to make art with my partner, who seriously surprised me with some of the amazing pieces she was cranking out. We're going to do whatever the next class is, so I'm looking forward to expanding my artistic horizons to new mediums (and getting further humbled by my wife's amazing work.)