A monotype is a print made by painting an image on a smooth, non-absorbent plate, typically acrylic or glass, and then pressing paper against that painted surface and peeling it off to reveal the image on the paper. The inks used can be oil or water based. The first print, the monotype, is unique; additional pressing on the same plate are “ghost” prints, since each pressing removes more of the paint from the plate.

A Pochoir monotype is one that is created using stencils, flat materials found naturally, like leaves, or hand-cut from paper. These stencils are painted and composed on the plate. The stencils are usually overlapped. The image is then pressed directly from the plate to produce the pochoir monotype. For subsequent prints, the stencils can be re-composed on the plate before pressing; the stencils can even be turned upside down, yielding interesting patterns from the different inks that each piece was previously laid upon.

Pochoir, literally French for “stencil”, gained popularity in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

Long-time SAA member Annick Bouvron Gromek shows how this process is done in the following sequence of photographs. Here she uses leaves placed upon separate plates of yupo paper (waterproof synthetic paper) which are then arranged on the printing plate.

What you need before you start:

# 1: Materials from the woods or garden.

#2: Large soaking tub.

#3: A place where you blot the soaked paper.

#4: A press.

#5: Plexiglas plates and yupo plates.

Steps in making the monotype:

#6: Prepare your inks. I used Charbonnel Etching inks.

#7: Ink your plates – I used a brayer to do this.

#8 & 9: Place your pochoirs (stencils) on your plates. I used leaves, grasses and fern for stencils.

#10: After the first pressing, I remove the plants materials.

#11: Blot your paper.

# 12: Assemble the final plate.

The final result:

Here you have a multi-plate pochoirs monotype – Fall Impressions #1.

A gallery of Annick’s monotypes:

(Click any image to see larger/slideshow.)

For more information about Annick and her works, see her virtual gallery page.