This week we worked with collage to make amazing, but unusual monoprints. Usually monoprinting involves painting onto a plate of glass or perspex and taking a print, or you cover that plate with ink and then make marks to remove some of it and take a print. This way is a variation on the first type but with the added addition of magazines as the base from which to work from (as paper is the term’s theme). The kids all chose images from magazines that they liked (I encouraged them to work with people as this method works so well when conveying expression). Then they placed a sheet of those plastic envelopes you use when laminating (shiny side up) above the image and painted their marks on top of the plastic, tracing the image. The task was to choose which were the important elements to convey – you have to work quickly before the paint dries so cannot go into too much detail. Once happy, you simply lay a sheet of plain paper on top, rub evenly and take a print. The process is very experimental and so the results were always surprising and, as you can see, very often magnificent. When you have your print you simply clean off the plastic with a wet cloth and start again. I also encouraged the children to add other elements to their prints, if they needed more detail or embellishments, when dry – including collaged papers, and paint and/or ink.
