Supply List
Paints:
I use Golden Open Acrylics because they stay workable longer than regular acrylic paints. But feel free to use any brand of these colours…or select your own colour range and be creative.
- C.P. Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Ultramarine Blue
- Quinacridone Magenta
- Titanium White
Gel Plate
Here I’m using a 6×6 inch gel plate but use any size you have…and if you don’t have a gel plate you could search the internet for instructions on making your own or you could try using a piece of Plexiglas.
Registration system
See video of the system I use. I’ve noticed there are also commercial grade systems available now. And I’ve also included a short video on a using a taped hinge if you have neither of the other registration systems.
Printmaking paper
The type of paper is important. You’ll be pulling several layers of colour and thinner paper (like printer paper, Japanese paper, tissues) will not stand up to the constant layering. If you’re serious about creating monotype landscape art, invest in good quality printmaking paper available at any art supply store. The sheets can be expensive but you can get about six 6×6” prints from a 22×30 inch sheet of paper. I use Rising Stonehenge paper.
Brushes
Any shape or size. You’ll see in the video I use a 3” house painting brush to apply most of the layers.
Other Items
- Palette knife – one large (about 2 inches long) and one small (1 inch long)
- Small brayer (roller) hard or soft
- Graphite pencil in the B range
- Inking pen – a 1.5 Pitt pen was used in this design
- Water bucket and water
- Towels to dry off the brushes after cleaning them in water.
Colour Chart
Print these templates (see button above) on card stock to create a durable surface to apply acrylic paint. For your first colour chart, we’re tackling neutral colours, which also happens to be the subject of this month’s project.
You’ll see in the video how to take primary colours, right from the paint tube, and make several
neutral colors and how to adjust those neutrals using white.
Keep in mind that all colour swatches can change depending on how much of each colour you add. So your chart may not look like mine – but it will be YOURS, and that’s the important thing.
You don’t actually need to create a colour chart before you produce your monotype. But the chart will provide you with some freedom to explore colour variations and perhaps to try some different colour combinations.
This month’s project is all about neutrals, but monochromatic neutrals – meaning using just one colour in different shades to create the design.
If you check my colour chart, you’ll see I used all the neutrals from the top row, the row marked blue and magenta. You could also try the same design using either the second or third row or both.
This is the beauty of a colour chart. It provides flexibility in your colour choices.
If you punch holes in the side of your chart and store each chart in a binder, you’ll have an amazing source of colour samples to help inspire you.
Instructions
I’m suggesting colours here but remember, you can use any combination of red, yellow and blue along with white. All combinations don’t always work, but it’s the experimentation that’s important just to see what WILL work for you.
I’m also not concerned about the brand of paint you use. I use Golden Open Acrylics because they’re richly pigmented and stay workable for quite some time. That means you can go for lunch and the paints won’t dry on your palette.
Remember, everything prints backwards.
And remember, don’t clean your plate until you’ve completely finished the print.
Here are the instructions using the palette of colours I recommend in the supply list.
- Squeeze a bit of Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Cadmium Yellow Medium and Titanium White on your palette.
- Mix a base colour, or mother colour as it’s also called. This base color is used in all the other colour mixes for this project. Your choice if you want it to be a little too red or a little too blue.
- The base colour is a mix of blue and red along with white to create a violet. See video
- Put out a little more white on your palette and add some of the mother colour. You’re looking for a soft violet so if the mix is getting too red, add some blue.
- Use an old flat dry brush and brush the mix over the entire gel plate. Pull the print. We don’t dry the colour layers between steps. Just work wet in wet.
- Now we’ll make the foreground, or the land colour, and all colours from now on will be neutrals. Use the mix from step 4 and add some yellow, red and blue to create a dark, dull, neutral violet. Use the dirty flat dry brush to apply the colours. Brush the colours vertically so you’ll get some vertical lines in the print resembling grasses. Pull the print.
- Next is the sky colour. Put some more white on your palette and add a bit of the colour mix from step 6. You basically want the same colour as the ground but quite a bit lighter. So use the white to create the light. Brush this colour onto the sky area leaving a bit of a gap between the bottom of the sky and the top of the foreground. Pull the print.
- Mix the tree colour which is the darkest colour on the print. Mix all your colours together to get a dark neutral violet, darker than the foreground colour.
- Roll your brayer through the paint puddle then roll the brayer onto a clean spot on the palette to get an even coating of paint on the roller. Using only the side edge of the brayer, roll some vertical, random trees. Adjust the thickness of the trees by letting a little more of the body of the roller touch the surface, not just the side edge. Keep these random. If you’re using a paintbrush instead of a roller, just paint the lines on the plate. Pull the print.
- Next, working directly on the print, use a “B” pencil (these are soft graphite) and randomly and loosely darken the left side of the trunks and under a few of the branches.
- To increase the shadow intensity in spots where the darkest shadows would be, go over the graphite lines with an ink pen.
- And that’s it, you’ve completed your first project. Congratulations. Let’s share your work on our facebook page.