Today’s 100 Day Project mini canvas has gone on a wee side quest. It occurred to me that I have a gel plate the same size as the canvas boards, and the combination is turning out to be a boat floater.
I love using gesso and mediums with charcoal and pastels, not least because the whole fixative thing is a pita, and there’s a fun technique where you can use a gel plate covered in clear gesso, or acrylic medium, to seal drawings in your sketchbook.
I decided to use that idea with a bit of modification to create a monoprint on a canvas board.
I drew from a reference in my sketchbook using a pastel, then laid the gel plate on the sketch to lift the drawing. It smudged a bit, but that can be addressed with more care, however the smudging fitted with my idea for layers.
So, this is adding a step before fixing the drawing in the sketchbook, so you can take your drawing and make a print, then fix the original, which I did using the gel plate as described above.
I have the luxury of two 6×6″ plates, but this whole process can be done with one plate, it would just take a bit more time.
The gel plate with the pastel transfer needs to be covered in medium, or clear gesso, or acrylic paint to print onto the substrate. I used clear gesso.
Once that was transferred to the canvas, and dry, I repeated the whole process with a sepia Conté pencil. This gave a bit more definition.
I transferred this layer to gel plate, then printed it on the canvas, and again sealed the sketchbook drawing.
For the third layer I used a white Conté pencil to pull out some highlights, and repeated the process. The white didn’t transfer so well, but white charcoal might do better, more experimentation needed.
There are a multitude of possibilities with this technique, and I’m convinced it will work with other dry mediums like graphite, charcoal, pan pastels, etc.
I’m not sure of I’ll do more to this one, or not, but I’m pleased with the result, and the possibilities.
Til the morn,
Suzanne
754/800
Thrummie Bizzum 
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