D is for Dabble

dab·ble

1. • become involved superficially:
2. • to have a casual or superficial interest in something
3. • splash: to paddle, play, or splash in water
4. • dip something: to wet something by dipping it in a liquid

Synonyms: experiment · try your hand · dip into · play at · putter · fiddle · toy with

 

I have just begun a new class, Monotype and Collage at Multnomah Arts Center. The first session was a wonderful demonstration of the tools, the press, the inks and an introduction to the possibilities that can happen in a print studio.

To finish the class, we were introduced to a very simple process, Trace Monotype. This is done by covering a Plexiglas plate with one color of oil based ink, laying thick paper on top, and simply drawing an image into the paper. No press is involved.

 

When the paper is removed from the plate, the image, and lots of background texture appears on the back of the sheet. Because time was short, I did a quick fish in the water sketch, and it looked very cool. However, when I brought it home, I decided to experiment (dabble, see above), with the image by adding some color.

My first idea was oil pastel - that didn't quite work, so I switched to dry pastel which blended and mixed beautifully on top of the oily ink of the image. This was just an experiment, but I like the softness of the color over the dark of the background. Most of all, I learned something by simply allowing myself to play.