'Ancient Facts' Monoprint

'Ancient Facts' ( monoprint 5/8 )

'Ancient Fact' Mixed Media Hand-pulled Printmaking Impression on time and truth

Drawing inspiration from pre-history, philosophy and scientific themes, 'Ancient Facts' seeks to question beliefs society has deemed as 'truth' without question through the ages. Created with a mixture of intaglio, relief & stenciled printmaking techniques as well as washes of acrylic paint , this piece is one of 8 similar but unique impressions.

Monoprint: Only 8 unique monoprints were created, each uniquely individual due to the technique involved...

Medium / Method : Mixed Technique Print (Intaglio Perspex etching, Relief Printing - collagraph and stencilled glazed acrylic paint layers ) Collagraph Ink ( a mixture of starch glue, Daler Rowney Acrylic Paint, Gel Retarder), Etching- Fairbro Linoprint Ink, Daler Rowney Acrylic Glazes on Canson Watercolour Paper.

Size: 9 . 4 Inches x 3 . 5 Inches

Created in 2003

How 'Ancient Facts' monoprints came about...

Okie, these picture were taken pre-digital (so some are not quite optimal), and I didn't at the time take pictures of the whole process involved, most notably when etching and printing the final skeleton of the bird and fish.. However hopefully these will give you some idea of the process..

The initial stages of these impressions were created with collograph plates, printed in the traditional method of burnishing dampened paper on the inked plates. To ensure that this printed surface would be suitable for the proceeding layers of acrylic washes, I created my own 'original' ink (a mix of the traditional japanese printing ink with more contemporary mediums) specially for these base layers.
After these preliminary layers were dry, stenciled masking medium was applied in several stages in between washes of thin acrylic paint.
After the thin washes has dried and the masking had been removed, the final etching stage was completed with an intaglio etched perspex plate printed with an etching printing press...