{"id":3029,"date":"2026-07-12T16:25:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2026-07-12T16:39:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:39:00","slug":"monotypes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/?p=3029","title":{"rendered":"Monotypes, Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I started a new monotype sketchbook (8.5″ x 11″) where I sketch with charcoal from the back pages to the front pages, and I create the monotypes from the front pages to the back pages. I wanted to have a system where the sketches aren’t in a wide variety of sketchbooks or on single sheets, but it’s kept together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I use the Gelli plate to “grab” the charcoal sketch and then usually only apply one coat of acrylic paint before creating the print. I doubt the sketches and the prints will meet in the middle because I sometimes don’t use a sketch, like the birch trees above. That was done with the roller and a paintbrush and inspired by Linda Brown<\/a>, a gel plate and collage artist Youtuber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My favorite is the potted begonia, second the birches, and third the old doorway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned a lesson about how to clean and store gel plates, but I didn’t realize I was doing anything wrong until my charcoal prints had nearly stopped transferring to the plate. Instead of a medium to dark transfer, they were barely there and then hardly lifted with paint. One day, I realized that I had totally stopped using mineral oil to clean the plates, and instead I was using almond oil, which seems to do a fine job and doesn’t irritate my skin. I then realized the almond oil was probably drying out the plates, which are made of mineral oil. So, I swapped back and everything has improved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started a new monotype sketchbook (8.5″ x 11″) where I sketch with charcoal from the back pages to the front pages, and I create the monotypes from the front pages to the back pages. I wanted to have a system where the sketches aren’t in a wide variety of sketchbooks or on single sheets, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[477,380,407,718],"tags":[725,720,486],"class_list":["post-3029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acrylics","category-art","category-pastel","category-printing","tag-gelli-plate","tag-monotype-printing","tag-sketching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3wmm6-MR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3029"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3041,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions\/3041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}