And a Couple More..

The moon gazing hare.. a mishmash of a mono-print and a bit of Photoshop. I thought if I were a moon gazing hare it would be rather nice to see another hare gazing back,  just as we continue to scan the universe for hopes of finding some friendly companions. I used to have a little replica moon gazing hare from the British Museum, another thing gone in the fire. It looked a bit like this..




And a moon thing. I cannot tell you what it is. It just grew out of the bobs of ink. There seemed to be feathers and eyes involved but think the feathers are of something deceased..




This is a bit of a favourite so far..

More Moon Animals

Continuing my experiments with mono-prints and the moon.
The moon-eating serpent appears in both Philippine ( Bakunawa) and Indian mythology (Rahu) ..thought to be responsible for eclipses… well why not.
Here are a couple of experiments combining mono-prints with a card plate.

 


And one combining 2 mono-print techniques and working over with pen and ink.

Moon Dogs

I am still very busy with the moon project and last week started making some monoprints to get some more experience with this form of printmaking. 

The proposed series is developing from the idea of the moon as being a constant thing, the same quiet sphere hanging in our sky for centuries, changing very little. What has changed are the theories, knowledge and ideas which we have formulated around it or discovered about it.

So I am keeping some consistency about the moon in the prints and changing its surroundings to reflect some of my own research findings.
If nothing else it’s a good exercise in monoprinting which is very unpredictable. I made a mask to keep the prints the same size, decided to use only black and white and cut some moon masks of the same size.

Knowing how unpredictable it is I decided to do as many as I could in a day using different tools and pressures and papers. I think I stopped at about 40, threw lots away and had about 20 to play with.
Inevitably some worked well, some did not, but all this is experimental so that’s fine.
To start adding some content to the basic prints I went on to cut some simple card shapes to ink up.

Many animals and myths and misconceptions are associated with the moon, so here, for a start is the dog howling at the moon.
In black….

and in white….

More Silk Road Horse Mono prints

I did a redraw from my sketch and worked on some more prints. Working from a sketch again and again is like Chinese whispers and the image will change as you go. It’s so much better than going back to your original, unless you are looking for accuracy. Let the image and your marks develop in their own way.

 

I think you need to do lots and lots of experiments and be prepared to throw away lots of paper. I have many rejects. Some are too dark, some too light, some get blotches in the wrong places etc etc, but the possibilities are endless.

This image was printed twice, once wiping out some areas and then drawing on the plate again and running it through the press. It spreads the line in places which sometimes is wonderful and sometimes not.

Printing inks on Japanese Paper A4

This image (I forgot to reverse the drawing :)…) was worked on both in line with a pen and roller on the plate, which is how the blobs of ink got there. All of the prints so far are with waterbased inks.
Things are all very experimental and endlessly surprising.
I really like them.

Silk Road Horse 2: Mono prints

Using the sketches of the stucco horse from the Museum I made some simple monoprints.
Each of the prints below are a result of slightly different inking, slightly different drawing pressure and single or double printing.

 

It’s the first time I have tried this technique and I am delighted by the sensitivity of the mark. There is a lithographic feeling about them, which to me is very beautiful.

I have become really interested in the implied connection between the horse and the figure, so I’ll be working on that some more this week.