Like a Layer Cake...but with paint

The last couple weeks of printmaking class, our teacher tried to convince us to work on layering some of the different techniques we had learned. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired at the time we were given this "assignment," but I decided to do some monoprinting and add it to this screenprint I had already worked from:

I had some moments of panic in which I started working on my monoprint upside down. One of the hardest things about printmaking, as far as I'm concerned, is having the spatial intelligence to understand which way your print will print. It varied by technique -- some techniques, like etching and linocut, print backwards from the way you make them. Others, like silkscreening, print forwards. When you try to mix a backwards technique with a forwards...then your brain turns to noodles.

In the end, I ended up with these two prints, one more detailed, and the other more abstract:

 

While these are cropped digitally, there is some mad crookedness in the original that is less than ideal and deserves some consideration, but overall, I think that the effects of these two are nice -- and crookedness can always be cured with a good trim and frame, right?

I also worked on this little piece, which did not turn out perfectly, but is certainly something to continue working on:

While currently the bottom just looks blank, it is in fact chunky and white (snow, if you will) in the paper print. This is an etching I worked on (the tree), with oil paint filling in the outline, and then a monoprint of the snow and bluebird.

I think that layering has it's advantages, but unfortunately, the techniques that is easiest to layer (screenprinting) is also the most time-consuming and expensive to prepare...not particularly feasible for me right now, seeing as I am poor :) But I plan to do some work with etching, linocut, and monoprinting, and am still hatching the greeting card plan, if only I could find a good producer of blank cards...