I’m back this week, with a simple prompt: base your page or spread on a monoprint style print.

A huge and heartfelt thank-you to Bonnie for covering Week 37 for me!

I chose to print my page from a session where I was working with the Gel Press Plate, but you can make a monoprint in any number of ways.  Roll paint on a nonstick surface, make some marks in it and print.  That’s how simple a monoprint can be!

You’ll notice some interesting imagery in my print, brand new stencil/mask combos that you’ll see and hear more about on Wednesday in the MidWeek Muse.  My lips are sealed till then, but I promise they’re worth waiting for!

Once I printed on the spread – the same thing on both sides as I was playing – I needed to figure what to do next.  I’m traveling again and though I brought a suitcase full of supplies with me, I ended up not entirely sure what the “do next” should be.  And not because of a dearth of supplies!  I ended up deciding to doodle, because it’s a good option when I’m stuck.  Of course then the question of what to doodle raised its head…

So I started with swirls that I wasn’t super fond of, so I closed in the few I’d done and resorted to making circles with scribbles in the middle.  They require no precision (that’s my kind of doodle!) and I was sitting on the couch doodling away, convinced I was going to fill in the background completely.  As an aside: I almost never sit on the couch and doodle, but I’m out of my usual element and it seemed like a good idea.

Till I realized how much real estate needed to be filled with doodles.  I’d decided to go ahead and do them despite how many I would need when it occurred to me that I could make dangly circle doodles.  The next thing I knew, I as off and running with the dangles.

And realized that I didn’t need to fill in the entire background.  The dangles create an entirely different look, one that’s perfectly ok with lots of background showing.  I found places to add more of the doodles till I was satisfied that the effect was balanced without being symmetrical, and decided it looked done.  So I stopped, which isn’t always my strong suit, but I’m happy with this page.

And happy to count it as another week completed!