Monotype no. 16 & 17:  oil based relief ink on plexiglass with relief print. The above prints are on a lovely Japanese paper called Kitakata.  Below are prints on mystery scraps of Western paper.  I have quite a lot of Kitakata paper in a unique shade of light green, and am resigning myself to the fact that it may not be useful for this project.

These prints were spared the etching press during the relief printing, to avoid the over-embossed effect.  The pressure of rubbing the back side of the paper with a spoon is enough to transfer the ink from the block to paper.  My overall impression is that hand painted watercolor monotypes are a more effective way to complement relief printing.  The loose, expressive nature of reductive monotype also makes it difficult to control, which doesn’t work for the effect I’m trying to achieve with these prints.