A Bird in the Hand

Continuing with monoprints, I wanted to try something a little more involved. I drew some birds with a white pencil onto black cardstock and cut them out.

 The mask is now ready for printing. After I roll paint on the Gelli with a brayer, mixing the paints (white and raw umber) and making marks on it, I place the mask over it, cover that with printmaking paper, or lightweight watercolour paper, and burnish with my hands. Then I carefully peel it off. Which is probably why it's called a hand-pulled print.

 I never really know what's going to happen, and that's part of the attraction!

Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown