Gail and Julia Ayres: Painterly Printmaking with Monotype

Discover the spontaneity and creative freedom of monotype with expert printmakers Julia and Gail Ayres.

Hand printing at home is possible with the clean and simple methods you'll learn from this mother-daughter team. Their creative process encourages experimentation and imagination. You'll make artistic discoveries throughout the workshop as you create painterly prints with everything from brushes and brayers to Q-tips and fingertips. Julia and Gail combine bold inks in three-color prints and paint free-form shapes directly on the plate. You'll enhance leftover pigments to create additional prints from a single plate and add accents with stencils and stamps. The slow-drying ink gives you almost unlimited working time, and cleanup is quick and non-toxic. Best of all, you can print with hand tools no press required! Akua Kolor inks permit extended working time and non-toxic clean up.

The Ayres' press-free techniques and non-toxic materials make this accessible to first-time printmakers of all ages. The 14" hand printing roller Createx distributed is no longer available. GaleForce Graphics, (Gail Ayers' business name) manufactures PinPress rollers which have similar precisely machined rollers, but feature all metal construction so do not have the problems associated with the plastic end pieces of the Createx roller which wore unevenly and stopped rolling easily.

PinPresses (the ones used in the video) come in two lengths--18.5" and 24.5" . These are available through McClain's Printmaking, Graphic Chemical and Ink, Takach Press, Rostow & Jung, and GaleForce Graphics. The DVD demonstrations include both additive and reductive monotype techniques. You will see multiple plate drops and use of stencils. The process incorporates multiple plate drops and stencils. You also see how to use a PinPress and Akua Kolor inks tools that were not available when Julia's book, recognized as a must-have for all painterly printmakers, was released. The DVD was filmed with 4 cameras so you can see exactly how it's done. To start hand printing at home, join Julia and Gail Ayres in Painterly Printmaking with Monotype.

Bonus Clip: Finishing a Monotype Print