Colouring up monoprints with natural inks

A soild version of the folded book of garden sketches I made in Norfolk last month

After the small back-drawn monoprints I made of seed heads last month, I decided to try something a bit more detailed. I made some quick sketches in the garden and then painted the back of them with black oil paint and traced them off to make simple monoprints. I then coloured them up with natural ink (black poppy, rhubarb root and acorn galls + iron oxide). The inks work well with the quality of line in the monoprints and soften the overall effect.

From analogue to digital… I’ve taken the line drawings from the folded book I made in Norfolk last month and played around with reversing areas in Photoshop to make solid shapes. An interesting exercise in balancing black and white. Some of these may be good starting points for trying out making tetra-pak prints. Possibly something for next month…