Monoprinting techniques of Paul Klee with block printing ink and watercolour

I had some requests to film a version of the Paul Klee demo that uses water base paints. In this example I use block printing ink and watercolour paint. Materials 200gsm smooth card or heavyweight cartridge paper SCOLA water based block printing ink (black) Watercolour pan set. Selection of colours, you could also use tubes, ink or even acrylic paint. Tin foil for the transfer of the block ink (use extra strong foil) This can simply be recycled when you have finished. Copy paper for the sketch using pencil. Cocktail stick or blunt pencil. 0:00 Block printing ink. This is a water based ink and I use this mainly for producing linocut printing. With a little experimentation I discovered that it is a great alternative to using oil based paints for mono-printing. Using a roller try to create a smooth thin layer of the ink. 0:58 Tin foil. I use extra strong foil here to prevent damage when working on the drawing. 1:19 With the roller begin to create the transfer sheet with the block printing ink. Use firm pressure until all the surface of the foil is covered. 2:25 The artwork. Here I use some thin copy paper and begin to sketch out the design, I base this sketch on one of Paul Klee’s fish motifs that are a common subject within his work. Keep the lines and shapes very simple and try to create space between the lines. 3:33 Remove excess printing ink. Using some scrap paper or newspaper press lightly on to the foil, this will prevent the first prints from becoming too dark. 4:04 Begin to transfer the sketch onto the surface (I use 200gsm smooth card here) Lightly place the foil onto the surface, place your original sketch on top and with firm pressure applied with a blunt pencil or cocktail stick trace over the lines, lift the foil to check that this is being transferred correctly, if it appears too dark simply remove more paint. 6:15 Improvise by adding extra lines to the composition, don’t be tempted to make an exact copy of the original sketch. 7:14 Adding the colour. For the purpose of this demo I am using a small portable 12 pan sketch set of watercolour (Daler Rowney) I really enjoy working with these sets, great for colouring ink sketches and using outdoors on sketching locations. Allow the block printing ink to dry completely before adding any colour (about 1 hour) Because the block printing ink is water based it will bleed a little into the colour, this will produce interesting effects and add to the composition but be careful not to add too much water. I use a mix of only 3 colours, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Red. 13:35 THE FINISHED WORK Composition inspired by Paul Klee using water based block printing ink and watercolour paint. 200gsm card approx 12“ x 10“