Sketchbook Day 29–swirling ellipses

I enjoyed making the two short videos yesterday and they are now on YouTube as well! I’ve also been able to add my demonstration video to Day 13 so you can now see it here on my blog as well as the Distant Stitch website.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the method of monoprinting. I have found it quit addictive as its such a quick process it encourages you to do ‘just one more’ until the paint runs out! Speedy drawing is just what you need to get your eye and hand ‘in’ for curved shapes particularly elliptical shapes. So a couple of extra ideas using this technique today.
Have you looked at ‘ferrinbroderie’ to see Jenn’s monoprints from yesterday? A lovely collection of sensitively observed elliptical shapes. I notice there is very little paint between the lines in your drawings Jenn – perhaps this is because you have used separate thinner paper than your sketchbook page? The monoprint drawing below has been done on ‘tissuetex’ or ‘repair tissue’ but still seems to pick up quite a bit of the paint from the plastic sheet – although I do like the way it gives the drawing a sort of hazy, mysterious look. A tip from you please Jenn?

TODAY’S TASKS -
TASK 1 – Add monoprinted lines to a previous drawing. Work with a different colour – preferably a darker one. You will already have the lines of this print on the back of the page so it should be easy to acknowledge the lines already drawn. Use this second layer of lines in different ways;
- Add lines to emphasise certain areas of your shapes that suggest a shaded or darker area.
- Add lines to give clarification of detail, pattern or just where the previous print didn’t pick up enough paint.
- Add the same lines again, but move them over a bit to act as a sort of over-print suggesting ideas of transparency or floating layers.
- Add a completely different shape add to the composition. For instance you might have drawn a wine glass yesterday – so now add the bottle!
  

^{These two drawings above where made onto yesterdays drawings to accentuate some of the features in the cotton reels.}

TASK 2  Draw into the inked plastic sheet and then press onto a page to take a print. This will produce a negative drawing whereas the drawings made by pressing through the paper produce positive lines.
The plastic sheet is on the right in the two examples below. It has been rolled with paint and then drawn into with the end of a paint brush.
The plastic was then placed face down onto a sketchbook page and a clean roller was used to press it firmly down.



TODAY’S TIPS – Mix your paint with a drop of washing-up liquid to keep it from drying too quickly. Mix this thoroughly before applying it to your plastic /glass sheet.
I have used a flexible piece of plastic to roll out my paint here. It was cut from a plastic sheet that covered the screen of a new computer – waiting for just this purpose!
You can use anything you like to draw with – a fine point or a very wide point, a textured point (old fork perhaps). I like your idea, Helen, of using the tip of a mini screw driver to make marks (see Fibrenell).
If you don’t have a second roller – use the back of a large spoon.
NEXT TASK – The next drawing day on Monday will be the last of this series and will involve stitches, so my ‘day of rest’ tomorrow (Sunday) will allow me to indulge myself with some stitching in preparation. If its a dry day I’m going to stitch looking at my row of 20 sunflowers which are looking quite droopy in this glum and wet weather.