‘Kernville VI’, monoprint, acrylic and ink, 100x71cm

This was the final piece I created towards my ‘Kernville’ commission.

With my larger pieces, like this one, the key is layering, layering, layering…
…& more layering! this also tends to go in hand with using quite a bit of masking, but when I don’t use this the key for placing any given print in the right place is to register the reverse of the gelliplate using a sharpie (easily removed afterwards with a light scourer) before working on the plate + printing.

When working at scale I use Fabriano Rosapina  or Fabriano 5 paper, although I’m reliably informed that Fabriano Tiepolo is just as responsive to gelliprints
To enable decent work-pace, I always have a hairdryer to hand. While printing wet-on-wet is OK when using cartridge papers, some of the Fabriano paper surfaces can adhere to the gelliplate and bubble a bit, so a quick blow-dry doesn’t go amiss between layers.
Also, with these bigger prints, I tend to draw a cartoon over the first few, priming background layers, to give a good sense of where I’m going… 🏃‍♂️

with the foreground here I also used a lithography/autographic ink for a drawing element. This enables a contrast to the other picture planes, to give a nice earthy feel to the land, and [as it’s a particularly sticky/oily ink] it separates from any acrylics that come into contact with it, making it stand out somewhat