Printing & Books: Start at the beginning

It was inevitable that after working on an art book that contained text I would start thinking about printing.  Coincidentally I discovered, a "Printing and Book Arts" class offered locally by Katherine Miller, a MFA Candidate in Printmaking & Book Arts at the UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art.  The class included instruction on making various types of prints, and making a simple book.  A perfect fit for me.

Our introduction to printing was to make "direct trace drawings".  The trace monotype process was invented by Paul Gauguin, and has been used by many painters to create prints.  Monoprints and Monotypes are called the "most painterly printmaking process".  I can understand why.  There is a soft beauty to this spontaneous printing process.  Each print is unique, and the printer directly influences the image during the printing process by adding, subtracting and manipulating the print.

Ink drawing

The setup:

1. Evenly ink a plexiglass plate.  
2. Place a sheet of thin smooth paper on top of the ink.  
3. Place a second slightly larger sheet of piece of paper on top of the first sheet.   

Carefully draw an image on the second sheet of paper.  Pressure from the pencil/pen transfers the ink to the middle sheet of paper.

Pressure print

The resulting print is a reverse of the drawing.  So if you want to add text to your print, you will have to learn how to write backwards.

Where I pressed harder when drawing more ink was transferred.  Where lines were close together or crosshatched more ink was transferred.  You can also see smudges of ink where where my hand leaned on the paper while I was drawing.  Fingers or spoons can be used to add texture.