MonoCollage

Since all of the print inductions are over, it's been time for me to start making work that could be used in my publication.

Using the skills and techniques I've learned in the print workshops, I've been trying to reconstruct the original drawings I did of Poe-inspired characters and houses in print form. I'm used to drawing with line, but monotype wasn't my favourite of the printmaking processes, I found it too rough and wanted to push myself to think beyond line.

Revisiting the magic of visual language and working with SHAPE/COLLAGE.

Difficult to get myself to think with shapes, but once I got into it I just kept cutting (freehand, with scissors!) and things appeared. The act of moving the shapes around the page until they find their 'place' is great, it means I don't have to commit to the image until it all comes together. Instead of drawing an arm in the wrong place, I can simply recut it or move it until it looks the way I want.

It's similar to the movement of my jointed, articulated dolls and puppets and I think the closest I could get to making puppets in this print-based project.
I'm enjoying this way of working and think it's a great translation of my 3D practice.

THE GRAIN OF THE MONOPRINT adds so much to the illustrations! Last year in Visual Language, I was just using plain paper stock (contour card, wove paper, laid paper, coloured paper) and although the images were built up in layers, they still felt a little flat, I think because the papers were just block colours. The printed textures I'm using help to communicate the dark, dingy and spooky atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe.