The monotype

These are some monotypes I created in college. The monotype, or monoprint, is a printmaking process where only one print can result (hence the name) in contrast to an edition which is possible with other printmaking mediums. The reason for this is that you are essentially creating a painting on a surface (with ink, or watercolor) that will be trasferred to a piece of paper. Once the image has been printed, a "ghost" image is left behind on the surface the artist painted on. This is a faint impression of the original image. The artist can then print the ghost image, alter it by adding or subtracting to the image, or simply paint the image again using the ghost image as a guide. No matter what, the image will almost never be the same twice (I say almost because anything's possible). It's also fun to combine printmaking techniques, like in "Knife Stab" where I used chine colle (a printmaking process where the artist glues paper to paper. not as easy as it sounds) in addition to monotype.