- In this world it is so easy to get pulled about in a million different directions and there seem to be so many outside pressures to conform to this and that and to keep up with everybody else. It?s all just noise? Follow your own instincts, do what you want to do, don?t worry about what anybody else is doing, or what anybody else has, just do your own thing.
/ Caroline Middlebrook [blog]
After some daincing with a dry brush it’s time to load up wet wet acrylic paint into the page and monoprint away! I love acrylic paint, don’t you?
This is the messy spread that I created in my altered art journal. Isn’t it… I don’t know. It’s messy but I think it is beautiful. Sorry art teachers I had in school, I’m not drawing inside the lines any more.
Monoprinting means that you add paint to a surface than turn that surface over and press it against another paper, thus “printing” a one-time “image”. Michelle Ward writes that she brushed paint onto a sheet of acetate, then monoprinted it onto the surface. She says that “this trick helps retain the integrity of the color and the brush effect”, I guess it’s because it is even dryer when printed.
I don’t own any acetate so I used ordinary paper papers laying around, and I did it with lots of acrylic paint (excess) so no brush strokes left this time. I will have to try that next. Instead I got these awesome veins (like a bulky blood vessel = blodåder) when I separated the papers. These “veins” are created on both meeting papers! I think this is a very cool surface for mixed media play!
A closer look reveals this, the true art vein of this page;
It’s the golden vein of Art, you see them right? It’s where the blood rushes in and the sanity out.
On this monoprinted page in my art journal you can actually see the paper size:
See the yellow? It is the monoprint.
This post is my second contribution to Crusade #29; Brush Effects about monoprinting and dry brushing. Thanks everyone for your generous comments on dreambrushing and edge spattering!
On another note; I finally picked up the Christmas book my brother gave me from the pile of unread books this week and finished it in a dizzy haze. I couldn’t put it down and now I’m reading it again… I love it! I need a new fix! Quick!
Hanna – firstly, you totally rocked my little world with your package, many thanks! Second – love all the smooshy paint here – you are not afraid of color :) I see some dirty brushing in addition to your monoprints. As you learned you don’t have to use acetate – try a file folder, or any smooth paper that won’t soak up the paint, and will let you release it in a monoprint – like a magazine page. Thanks for sharing your continued study of brush effects with the team!!
Oh! File folders and magazine pages! Great ideas. I’m going to do monoprinting with my 1 year olds. I’m a Toddler Teacher. I think they will love it. I believe parents will too.
I’m definently going to try this out soon. Perhaps I’ll sit down and journal tomorrow- it’s been way too long.
Whoa, like the dry brush technique, I will definitely try this out on my art journal. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful colors! Make me smile :) And got me inspired – thanks!
Oh my! That left hand side in particular is just so beautiful. The colours are divine…
Your print is beautiful, I love all the colours and the randomness.
I am reading the Twilight books now too, I am almost at the end of the second one and can’t wait to start the 3rd… they are addictive.
You had such fun with your experiments Hanna – love your approach to colours!! And yah boo to your old art teachers… you are so outside their lines now!! ;o)
That is realy interesting.
My pages of the alteres books look like yours. I could be your mother and live in a Germany. But I love art and colours, too.
Every time, when I look for your blog I am surprised and very pleases to see this. Good luck to you, Hanna.
SIGRID
Hanna, I love your messy color play ! Very juicy pages !
Your pages are beautiful!!!
I just finished the “Twilight” books. I started reading them just to see what everyone was talking about – and then couldn’t put them down either. Enjoy – they get better.
Those colors are gorgeous! This makes me want to start working in my art journal again. Thanks so much, I’ll be linking.
I heading out to the studio right now to play. Thanks for the inspiration!
I LOOOOVE the color here! AND you’re right, it’s so easy to get pulled here and there….so many things to try…to little time….
thanks for the great inspiration here
These are wayCOOL! the last one is just brilliant! The yellow monoprint is
. . . yummy! It’s good to paint ‘outside the lines’. . . .
After a winter of drab colors your smattering of colors delights my soul. I’ve never done monoprinting before, but you make me want to. BTW… I was “sucked” into the Twilight series by my stepdaughter. I initially read it so I could bond with her. Well… I’m not proud but I’m on my third reading of the series. I’m also being dragged to a midnight Twilight dvd release at our local Borders this Friday night. If nothing else, the books are total fun. Enjoy and thanks for a great tutorial!
Oh wow! These painty pages really sing! Wonderful work as always Hanna!
Beautiful! I love all that color!
Hanna, I love your bright colours an how you messed about with it. I followed all your links and I too started art journalling in a big old book with pictures in it and funnily enough mine is about animals too. I shall put up some photos later. But I digress, this is lovely!
LOVE the way you describe the veins created when the paint pulls between the layers of a monoprint. I’ve been working with them, too.
Your colors are luscious.
Its wonderful to see the work of someone who prints the way I do. I love to be spontaneous and working on acetate with acrylic is, for me, the way to go. I used to worry that it wasnt legit printing, now I do not care