Author Archives: Carole

About Carole

Artist, writer, PhD researcher and organic gardener. Twitter @carolekirk

‘Only One’ – Artists Book of Unique Monoprints

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As requested by Mithi, here is the full monoprint book.  The page spreads appear differently in the book, as I have scanned the A4 sheets which I then folded back on themselves (to A5 size) to make the book pages.  I bound the book using a Japanese stab-binding, which holds all the paper edges together.  The centre folds then form the right-hand page edges.

The multi-coloured images use oil pastel to create an ‘ink pad’ which I then monoprinted from.  The other images use oil paint rolled out thinly onto a perspex plate using a brayer.  Each page in the book is protected with a sheet of tracing paper.

 All the images were drawn using my non-dominant hand, and using an empty pen so that I couldn’t see the image properly until I finished it and turned the paper over to see the inked print. 

Front cover

‘Only One’ page 1

‘Only One’ Page 2

‘Only One’ Page 3

‘Only One’ Page 4

‘Only One’ Page 5

‘Only One’ Page 6

‘Only One’ Page 7

Hidden depths

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hidden depths

Charcoal on paper.

I drew this with no initial intention, and no visual reference.  With a blank sheet of paper in front of me, I started to scribble at random.  This baby image kind of appeared, so I worked to enhance it.  The basic pose I think was in my memory from one of my childhood photographs, but I didn’t refer back to that photo.  I like the effect of the build up of scribble marks and eraser marks.  It was also a good way to free me up to start drawing again, as I’ve been a bit ‘stuck’ lately.

Girl holding flowers

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Girl holding flowers

Monoprint on tracing paper.  I applied oil paint to a pallet, speading it out into a very thin layer with a glue spatula (this has left fine lines down the print, creating a distortion which I like).  I then laid the tracing paper gently on top of the layer of ink and used a photo to trace the outline of the image onto the back of the tracing paper, using a pencil with the lead retracted.  Where I pressed with the pencil, the ink transferred onto the paper.  I didn’t know what the resulting image would look like until I lifted the tissue paper off the ink.

I think that this does have visual characteristics that suggest memory – the fuzziness, transparency and lack of clarity.  I plan to do more, using different types of paper, and perhaps layering some of these images.

Sleeping Beauty

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Sleeping Beauty

Drypoint etching.  This plate was produced by scratching into a thin sheet of aluminium, applying ink and then wiping it off again, leaving ink in the scratches.  I’ve tried to get areas of tone by using steel wool, sandpaper and a roulette tool, but I feel I need to find more varied ways of applying tone – particularly to small areas.  My options are to use fine lines (cross hatching etc.); or to try adding texture such as fine sand.  Any ideas from anyone who knows anything about drypoint would be very welcome!  I’d love to find something that resembles aquatint, but that doesn’t require the use of acid.

Sleeping Beauty – An alternative ending

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The Prince finally made it to the sleeping Princess, and gazed down at her beauty before bending to kiss her red lips.  She awoke at once, and looked up into the eyes of the young man that she had fallen in love with in the forest.  He smiled down at her, and as he did so, she noticed that his face was changing. 
The eyebrows were growing black, bushy and closer together.  Astonished, she looked down to his eyes, which were now hard and grey.  His fine nose had filled out to become large and red, his face had sprouted coarse black whiskers, and his hair was now long and shaggy.  Horrified, the Princess backed away from him, half sitting on up on the bed, scrabbling backwards with her hands.
His smile broadened, showing a set of filthy yellow broken teeth.  It was the face of her worst nightmares.
 “Who … who are you?” she asked in a tiny little voice.
“I am the true ruler of this land,” he boomed, “trapped for twenty-six long years in the body of a wimpy prince by the wicked Queen who feared my power.  Only true love’s kiss could restore me to my true form.  And now, my pretty, it is done!  I can be powerful again! And you … you shall be my slave!”
The princess sobbed as the monster laughed cruelly, reaching out for her.  She leapt from the bed, edging around the room away from him.
“What’s wrong, my pretty?  Don’t you love me any more?”  He laughed again, and made another lunge.  She side-stepped and he lurched into the wall. 
Noticing the spinning wheel out of the corner of her eye, the Princess had an idea.  Keeping her terrified eyes on the monster, she edged towards it. He followed, still laughing, his yellow teeth glinting foully in the candlelight.  Stopping in front of the spinning wheel, she took a deep breath and faced him.
“You will never own me!” she cried.
“Oh, won’t I?” roared the monster and lunged again.  Swiftly, she side-stepped and the monster stumbled into the spinning wheel.  He flung his hairy arms out to stop himself and as he did so, one finger landed on the spindle and a drop of blood oozed out.  His mouth opened in a wide ‘o’ and his shocked grey eyes briefly met the princess’s before they closed.  He fell back onto the bed with a mighty thump and began to snore.
The princess ran to the door and opened it.  Candles guttered on the walls showing an empty corridor.  She ran down it, through the castle and out of the main gate.  The thicket of grey thorns protecting the castle faced her and for a moment she despaired.  A white dove flew in front of her, and following its flight she spotted the path that had been roughly hewn by the ‘prince’ as he made his way to her. 
She raced towards it and started to push her way through, the thorns catching on her dress as she ran.  Stopping to disentangle herself, she noticed that the thorns behind her had grown back over the path.  Gasping, she turned and picked up speed, racing as fast as the grasping thorns would allow her, all the time the thorns closing across the gap behind her.  Finally, she raced out of the thicket of thorns and stopped, blinking in the sunshine. 
There came the sound of a great crowd cheering, and as she saw her Mother and Father smiling at her.  Her Father opened his arms, and she ran into them.  Hearing laughter behind her, she turned to see the three fairies, and hugged each in turn.

“Where’s the wicked Queen?” she asked.
“She heard that the monster had returned, and she was last seen rowing out to sea with her Raven,” laughed the nearest fairy.  Everyone joined in the laughter.

The monster slept on while thorns grew over the whole castle.  No true love returned to wake him, and he was never seen again.
But the Princess never trusted men after that.  She went back to live with the three fairies in the forest, and they taught her all they knew about magic.  She wandered around the forest and came to think of it as her own. 
One day, her Mother and Father died and a new King and Queen came to their castle, but they let the Princess continue to live in the wood and they did not disturb her.  However, they wished for the three fairies to live with them in the castle, and so with much sorrow, the Princess and the fairies were parted.  Months past, and the Princess had little to do but tend to her forest.  She became quite possessive, chasing away any poor traveller who accidentally strayed into her wood.
Then the new King and Queen had a baby daughter.  Curious to see this new child, the Princess left her woods and went to the christening.  The King met her and gently told her that now he had a daughter, he would want her to be able to play freely in the forest, just as the Princess had done.
Suddenly incensed with rage, the Princess cried out,
“If your daughter strays into the forest, she will prick her finger on a thorn and fall into a deep sleep until true love’s kiss awakes her!”
Looking down at the ugly baby, she thought that this was rather unlikely.