Monoprinting for Cowgirls

Howdy Y'all!

Round here, we got both kinds of monoprinting... Country and Western. BUT Today, we're including Country Western monoprinting projects! + A BONUS MONOPRINT!

My Mimi is the queen of the Southwest aesthetic. Last month, I had breakthrough covid. I missed her 85th birthday party so family has been on my mind! This goes out to the greatest teacher I know. Love you Mimi!

This month, my favorite cowboy had a birthday! My amazing DAD!!

He always wears boots. Rarely sneakers, sometimes sandals, never barefoot..... He's a boots man. He has an art installation or a sculpture? (I guess we can call it that?) of retired boots and antlers in his shop. It's next to the fishing gear and my grandfather's invented peasheller.

And, don't call them, ahem, cowboy boots. They're JUST BOOTS.

He always told this joke about his ostrich boots. People would ask,

"What are those made of?"

"Cattle with acne."

Bahahhahaha. Thanks dad.

That joke killed with my ostrich purse on the one AMAZING occasion someone asked what it was made of. It was like the star alignment of comedic oppurtunity.

So, why the theme this week? First, I think it's aesthetically trending right now on the tails of Lil Nas X's Old Town Road. Tractor rap was getting pretty stale so it's about time for a makeover.

#OrvillePeck #Yellowstone #Dolly #QueerEyeinTexas #FringedEverything

Second, because I am a creative monster of ADHD and imagination. A theme helps me aim my energy into a cohesive product.

Third, a perfect storm of inspiration struck with my family and a found scrap.

After cutting hexagons for a fabulous first grade project, we had lots of scraps. I found this one on the floor and BOY HOWDY!! We have a project! #Blessyourheart

What a PERFECT inspiration for monoprinting!? We're going with a Western theme for this Art Theory and Practice blog assignment this week.

Gelli Plate Boots

There are TONS of tutorials on gelli printing on the internet. I'm very new to the technique so I can tell you what I had but honestly, it's hard to screw this up. You can use subtractive, additive, and even some interesting inkjet transfer methods on gelli plates. You can even MAKE YOUR OWN GELLI PLATES at home. Expirament with whatever but I have a few tips I've learned thus far.

1.If you're reusing the project for collage, use tempera or acrylic. Don't use ink or it will get sticky again.

2. No sharp objects. It will mess up your plate.

3. Dont draw something detailed with a super viscous medium. It will just blob.

4. Low expectations. Give yourself some GRACE! You will fail a lot but the wins are worth it.

Print a lot in one setting because it's a huge mess. This would be like clay in that everyone all day would be printing so there's no crazy end of class clean up.

A catalog or phone book is the best tool for cleaning a brayer or removing excess ink. Just flip the page for a clean start.

Try all the things. Just. Try. It.

Materials I had at the time of printing:

Tempera paint

Acrylic paint

3 brayers

Smooth Tray for inking

Cut paper shapes

Q-tips

Cardboard scraps

Various weights and colors of paper

Sprayable washable marker ink

Spray bottle of water

Paper towels

Cut paper shapes

Liquid watercolors

Paint brushes

Bubble wrap

Various stencils

Drying rack

Paper towels

Wet wipes

Instructions?...

Roll acrylic paint with a brayer on the plate.

Draw something in the ink.

Print it. Wipe it. Try something else.

Put paper stencil down on plate.

Spray with ink water for an arbitrary amount of sprays ? Until its kinda wet?

Print it. Wipe it. Try something else.

Try 2 neon colors of tempera and put paper shapes on the paint.

Remove areas with a Q-tip drawing. Make a repeated motif.

Print it. Dont wipe it and print it with bubble wrap.

Print it. Wipe it.

Paint it with blue acrylic and stamp neon bubble wrap on paint. Peel off.

Print and wipe....

Try stuff until clean up time.

As far as.the boot goes, I made a template from the scrap and then made a better one. I cut that template apart into the parts of a boot that I wanted on my design.

Around the template design part of the boot, I called my dad for some information. He said the foot part was called the lower, ankle/calf part was the upper, the welt is in between your foot and the sole, and the tab is how you pull them on. There are also holes. There's also other parts and some cool quality details but let's keep this simple.

Boot design

I was inspired by the ostrich joke so I thought a boot would lend itself to some interesting implied texture opportunities with gelli printing.

Shoe leather isn't just cattle. Here's some of the leathers that actually exist in boots that my dad and I discussed:

Bull hide

Calf skin- very soft

Snake-python rattlesnake Anaconda

lizard

Kangaroo-popular in soccer shoes

ostrich full quill- my dad likes the full quill with large detail from the tail of the animal.

ostrich belly for smaller details and smoother leather

bison or buffalo

crocodile

alligator

turtle

water buffalo- my dad said this is really tough leather.

elephant- yes. I guess it's also really tough.

shark

elk

and probably baby seal or any other animal that has a hide that can be tanned. Interesting and a little cringey.

With that, what kind of patterns and textures on a boot could you replicate or invent with a gelli plate?

Giraffe and sea monster scales

Leopard and crocodile

Python and marble

Brick and burlap

Hermes pattern and bubbles etc....

The boot is your oyster.

The decal and fringe, I kind of copied from my boots.

PRO TIP: Pool noodles make great boot shapers.

EASY: Monoprint Self-Portrait

My professor demonstrated a cool melted crayon drawing on a hot plate and printed the drawing on paper. That one was cool but I had no hot plate and I dont think my elementary students could handle it.

This is a more painless option with markers and a plastic table top mirror. You could also use this technique on a transparency sheet or other non-porus surface you can wipe down if you dont have a mirror. Instead of tracing, I would do a blind contour maybe.

Selfie

Materials:

Tabletop mirrors- one for each cowpoke

Regular ol' washable markers

Construction paper or regular- a little rough and slightly thicker works the best

Spray bottle of water

Paper towels

Drying rack or drying area

Sharpie or pencil for signing prints (non water soluable)

Patience. Give yourself some grace!

Optional: Sunglasses

If you're doing this with students, have them pre-sign their pages for printing with a sharpie or pencil. If not, they will get mixed up. Trust me. #headache

PRO TIP: The standard is sign the print at the bottom right hand corner below the impression, the edition number on the bottom left hand corner and the title, if any, in the center.

Trace your georgeous mug with the markers directly on the mirror. PRO TIP: Close one eye to trace. I wore darker sunglasses in the second so you couldn't see my closed eye and I looked super cool. Faked the open eye in the first one. 😎

Place your mirror so it's flat on the table.

Spritz your signed paper AWAY from the mirror. Damp, not drippy, please.

Place the **damp** paper gently over the image and pull your print. Don't scoot it all over the place or it will smudge.

Let it dry, add your title in the middle and the print edition on the left side if you pull an additional image, which is not monoprinting. Whatever.

Wipe your mirror and make more!

The first one didn't really turn out.

Still cool.

Who else loves my Orville Peck mask? I lost the matching fringed gloves...

This one turned out great! I waited too long to print the first one and the paper warped. I barely Spritz this one and then Spritz did a little on the back when it was on the mirror. perfect!