Artists & Illustrators — June 2017

NEW WAYS WITH WATERCOLOUR

I have always loved processes and ringing the changes

from time to time. We all get a bored of repeating

ourselves, whether it’s the marks we make, the surfaces

we work on, the subjects we choose or the equipment and

materials we use. It is good to alter at least one of those

options when things start to feel a bit stale.

I discovered monoprinting with gouache through a

chance remark at a print workshop. The tutor commented

that by adding a few drops of gum arabic or washing-up

liquid (the eco-friendly kind, to avoid damaging chemicals)

to gouache you could use it to print. I loved it. Initially,

I painted freehand on a sheet of acrylic and printed onto

a cheap Fabriano Rosaspina off-white print paper.

Gouache’s drawback is that it dries much more rapidly

than purpose-made printing inks. If I was working on a

large area, by the time I had finished painting, the first

part of the image was often already dry. So I

experimented with quickly repainting dry areas and then

printing; soaking and blotting the paper before printing;

and spraying the surface of the painted acrylic sheet

with a fine diffuser (of water). All of these methods

produced different results.

UNPREDICTABLE

Autumn Border with Bumblebees (right) was produced

with the first method of quickly repainting dry areas just

before printing. A sheet of paper is laid carefully over your

painted image and rubbed all over with the heel of the

hand. You can check how the image is transferring to the

paper by peeling back one corner at a time. The magic is

that you cannot predict what is going to appear – it

usually bears only a partial resemblance to what you

1

IN THE FIRST PART OF OUR NEW

SERIES, ARTIST KATE OSBORNE

EXPLORES AN EXCITING WAY

TO WORK WITH GOUACHE

ABOVE Autumn Border with Bumblebees, monoprint, gouache and watercolour, 50x25cm

MONOPRINTING

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Artists & Illustrators 63

63 Watercolour_Kate Osborne.indd 63 06/04/2017 12:44