Following on from my previous print work I decided to try out combining the coloured prints with black and white mono-print drawings of urban environments; which I have briefly looked at as a part of the project i.e. dispersion of crowds of people. The idea of layers, influenced partly by Gerhard Richter, also played a big part during this stage as I wanted to combine techniques together to see if it worked or not and what could be done to improve on this. I began by producing mono-prints of sketches to form the backgrounds. To do this I rolled a very thin layer of black ink out and to test that it was thin enough I ran a piece of paper across it (it should not stick down if it is the right consistency). Once I had it right I then placed down my paper and using the end of a pen I drew in the sketch. What was interesting about these sketches was that I was drawing them blind, I could not see what marks I was making I had to try and remember where I had started. But this gave them character as opposed to neat refined drawings. Once these had dried I then made up my first colour pallet on the work surface. I then printed the drawing onto that pallet so that the colour would form as a second layer on top of the sketch.
(Untitled, images above & Below, mono-print, printing ink, zest-it, A3)
Above is an example of what I produced, images from before and after. To help the colours blend together I used a small amount of zest-it, this also created interesting textures and bubble marks which in turn complement the background layer; contrasting the soft and harsh textures. I then tried this process onto each of the other mono-print sketches I had made, giving them a different colour arrangement that would best complement their subject matter.
(Untitled, mono-print, printing ink, zest it, A4)
(Untitled, mono-print, printing ink, Indian Ink, A3)
I created the two prints above in a similar way to the first print. I created my colour pallet on the work surface and once ready I printed these onto my sketch. The first one uses zest-it and the second print does not. This again was an experimentation to see what process works best. One thing I did find was that with a few of the prints, the sketch behind lost some of its detail so I used Indian Ink as a third layer to help define parts of the structures that were not pronounced enough.
