Monotypes & Collographs

Monotypes and collographs are two forms of printmaking that favor organic, gestural, textural, and ephemeral marks and imagery. They are also incredibly immediate, playful, and multi-faceted types of printmaking, and therefore well suited to first time printmakers and artists who typically work with paint, mixed media, and sculpture.

Monotypes usually begin from a sheet of plexiglass as the foundation. Through working additively and reductively with ink, crayons, water or solvents, and stencils, students can capture a large range of aesthetics from subtle tonality to gritty textures to minimal formal forms. Collographs are similar, but incorporate elements of relief by collaging things like fibers, sandpaper, and acrylic mediums directly to the plate. The plate is then inked similarly to either a relief or intaglio print.

Throughout the class, students will develop new ways to build images while learning about the properties of ink, paper, pressure, and how they interact to create a broad range of aesthetic possibilities. Printing techniques will include collage, collographs, multiple plate printing, trace, stencil, ghost, additive, and reductive. Students will make many prints to learn and test these processes before moving on to a project that combines various methods and showcases a personal style or vision. Students will need to supply the paper for independent projects. All participants will leave the class comfortable using our etching press, and authorization to continue printing at Spudnik after the class.