User:Ashleyw-171/Monochrome printmaking

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One of the earliest artists that tested this technique was Hercules Seghers, the Dutch painter and printmaker specialising in fantasy landscape paintings. His characteristic linework and landscapes not typical for Holland set them apart even among old prints history. However, there is not much of that artist’s work available, so a lot of art fakery is going on.

Benedetto Castiglione cut out more than seventy plates using light and dark spots, or aquatints effect. He is believed to be the author of the first monotype using a wide amount of carbon or brown ink onto an etching plate and making light strokes with a blunt stick.

Another important artist was William Blake who also began working in monotypes, becoming one of the pioneers. His friend Ludovic Lepic introduced Degas’s to “printed drawings”, which involved retroussages. In different ways, Degas manipulated his plates – by wiping off colour only for him to add some more colour as he desired. This was done either using rags or his fingers or a brush.

In the late nineteenth century, there was an unexpected rise in monotype printing which was done by Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Klee among others. Under the influence of Japanese prints, Maurice Prendergast created his own distinctive method tracé monotypie where he would ink the first piece of paper, place another one over it and draw on that new paper. Extraordinary monotypes were also done by Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Chagall, Miro’, Dubuffet, and Matisse.

What makes the monotype medium so beautiful is that it is very spontaneous and a combination of printing, painting, and drawing media.