What is monotype?

Question:

What is monotype?

how is a monotype illustration made?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Hi Jacob-

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a "monotype illustration", but I've been in graphic design for over 15 years, and in my experience, a "monotype" is a one-of-a-kind printed image:⠡n image created by an artist painting on a smooth surface like glass or plexi which is pressed on paper laid on an inked (unetched) metal plate (sometimes, but less often, a sheet of glass). Generally, you can only "pull" two images from each plate, but they will not be exactly alike- each one will be unique, with the second generally being called a "ghost" because most of the ink was pulled up by the first imprint (so the second is much lighter and more "ghost" like).

With new technologies in use, there are experimental new inks and ink/oil combinations being used to try to find the ability to pull more images per plate... and as with all technology, I'm sure it will happen. I have already seen some of the them (eh, not my cup o tea). But there is really nothing more beautiful than an original old monotype pulled from a wonderful old manual press (can you tell I *love* printing?!)!

There are also "monoprint's", which are a different beast altogether- but often confused with monotypes. Let me know if that's what you need to know about, and I will explain further. (major differences, they use etched printing plates, and print multiple copies, called serials, of each piece)

I hope that's kinda what you were looking for... let me know if I can expand on anything and I'd be glad to help. If you let me know what you are trying to do, I can probably recommend some good books/resources as well. Good luck!

peas out!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Addition: here's a gootube vid I found that shows an as yet famous American artist named Arthur Secunda making a monotype, and they explain the process as he goes along- it's not bad:

http://dabble.com/tag/monotype

Here is Mr. Secunda's site:

http://www.arthursecunda.com/index.html...

It's not a well organized site, and not quite my style, but most of the monotypes are in this section, you just have to click on each thumbnail, and it will give you all the details of the artwork:

http://www.arthursecunda.com/sunsets-mou...

Here are 6 random mono's I found for sale (all by the same artist) on an artist's eBay-like site called etsy.com:

http://theitinerantartist.blogspot.com/s...

And this is her site:

http://www.dianecutter.com/monotypesid7....

And last, here is one *very* random pelican mono I found online:

http://artcritiquegallery.com/dcforum/dc...

I actually have really good art books with beautiful monotypes in them, but they are all packed away in storage... so google is the best I can do for now. Hope some of this stuff helps- good luck with whatever you are doing.