Monotype: Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking
The first printmakers were cave people who painted their hands  and slapped them against cave walls. Today, printmakers like  Ayres still use methods nearly as simple. Others, like  printmaker and painter Welden, have created completely new  processes, like his solarplate method. Monotypes, the subject of  Ayres's book, are created by applying oil- or water-based paint  to a flat plate. By pressing a dampened sheet of paper to the  plate, a single print is made. The earliest such prints go back  to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, around 1640. Later, Degas and  Gauguin experimented with the method. Today, there is a virtual  explosion of new ways to create monotypes. Ayres explores the  work of a variety of such artists, who demonstrate imaging  techniques, masks, stencils, collage, and mixed-media prints.  The results vary from traditional images to eccentric, colorful  fantasies. In 1972, Welden discovered that polymer printers'  plates could be used in printmaking by exposing them to the sun.  Draw on a transparency, place it over the plate, expose it to  the sun, and the plate is, in effect, etched for printing. The  method is now widely used, and Welden and Muir have produced the  first book on this extremely versatile art. Both books are  highly recommended.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.