Drawings of Sculptures, Monotypes of Drawings

I had a studio day today at my friend Linda's studio.  We were motivating each other to get going on some new work, starting with some monotypes.  As we sat taking a lunch break, I drew some pieces of sculpture that I greatly admire in her collection.  On the left is a ceramic baby figure by Elma Johnson.  On the right is a ceramic woman by Gladys Reineke.

And on this page, two mother and child ceramic pieces, both also by Gladys Reineke.  I love the rough indeterminacy of Reineke's and Johnson's work.  I like the idea of not fixing a living being too firmly in place, because living creatures are never completely still and never really static.  With this idea in mind, I went into the studio and did two monotypes after drawings that I did several weeks ago of Jesse stretching.

The monotype on the right came from a drawing I did of Jesse as he rolled around and stretched.  To make a monotype, I rolled oil paint on a zinc plate with a rubber brayer.  Then using rags, Q-tips, and a blunt stick I moved the paint around, removing some, texturing it in areas, and then adding some with a thin brush.  When the drawing on the plate looked like I wanted it to look, I lay it on the bed of Linda's etching press and put damp printmaking paper over it.  Then I lay the three etching blankets over the plate and paper and ran the whole thing through the press.  The first drawing, which I did in a mix of alizarin crimson and Payne's gray, consisted of a white cat outlined by the color with a few features drawn in.  Next I took the still-inked plate over to the work table and rolled a brayer full of yellow ochre paint over everything.  I then wiped out with a rag and some plate-polishing powder all the areas I wanted to remain white.  I lay the plate down inside the plate mark/borders of the first print and printed this second drawing right over the first print.

The monotype to the left started out as a roll-up of bright red (cadmium red) paint that I then wiped away and drew back into.  The second coat/printing was of yellow ochre paint with some slight wiping.  To draw this print I referred to a drawing that I had done of Jesse stretching luxuriously and then rolling off the bench he was on. 

Both these monotypes were done with the same small zinc plate, around 5 x 7".  It felt great to do them and to work directly in color, using both additive and subtractive processes.  I want to do a few more moving cat monotypes and then translate them into large woodcut prints.

One of the great benefits of this drawing 10,000 project is that I now have a very big collection of ideas to work from, and my drawing skills in making monotypes are so much better, thanks to all that practice, than they were two months ago.