Mono printing FUN!

I was intrigued by the mono printing process which I previously remember as finger and hand printing as a child - oh to be a child again! And why not I thought and Cathy Cullis whose work I admire just gave me the excuse (why do I need an excuse?) the other day when I read her wonderful post on how she creates her mono prints - Cathy really has found her inner child - thank you Cathy - here are some of my first attempts - I had much too much ink on the plate of course and it turned out quite a spotchy mess - yes there was meant to be an image!then I had to put the plate away for a few days while more grown up things took over my time - I came back to an almost dry but still tacky plate which had lost the ink in places - even the prints from the cling film were quite interesting! I had a lovely time rubbing it in the ink free spots and getting mucky - so that's why baby wipes were invented!!

Then I drew a couple of trees, the left hand one with a large needle and the right hand one with a fine tipped pen which was much easier as I could see what I was drawing - but it felt more predictable and I like the abstract quality of the one on the left much more.... I am using a water soluble oil paint but am going to get some printing ink to see the difference..... meantime I seem to still be obsessing about trees and rocks!
Last week I rolled some ink over my reduction lino cut of the gorse which I showed in a previous post and printed it under the press - there was not much lino left but this is the result which I think I will use as the basis of a drawing.....

Do go and have a look at Cathy's work if you don't know her already! She is a very prolific artist.

Now I have my new camera I hope to get back to posting more often - I have the next 10 days free of any commitments so I hope to get some time to catch up with all my blogging friends too!