Tapestry of Feathers

I recently finished a second "kid friendly" print for an upcoming children's exhibition and had a lot of fun just playing around with the monotype process. I based the print on a photo I took last year of a beautiful peacock at the Honolulu Zoo. I felt it would be eye-catching and appeal to children of all ages.

The print is a monotype created with Akua Intaglio ink. After masking out the bird's body, I inked up some bubble wrap scraps to lay in a basic background texture and rolled in other areas of color directly with the brayer; unwanted areas of ink were wiped away with a cotton swab. I created the image on a sheet of plexiglass and ran it through the press each time new information was added to the plate. I also used a few found objects as stamps.

When you're up close to one of these magnificent birds, all you notice is layer upon layer of beautiful feathers. Since I couldn't resist printing some actual feathers, I sacrificed an old feather duster and printed with wild abandon. Since my goal was to create intricate, complex layers to imitate the birds plumage, the actual feathers worked well.

Periodically, I would paint directly onto the plate to add detailed elements; some of which would get lost as I overprinted textural elements. I finally reached a point where I just had to force myself to stop.

This turned out to be a good exercise and forced me to let go and embrace the process rather than the outcome. It was all about experimentation tempered with experience which ultimately yielded an interesting print.