Subverting the Iconic

An experiment in monoprinting

 The idea for this project came to when trying to come up with an interesting way to introduce the concept of mono-printing to a group of adult student undertaking a 10 week art course I was running locally.

To put it simply, monoprinting is the method by which you apply ink to a surface, cover with paper and then use a blunt pointed instrument to draw on the reverse of the paper covering the inked plate in order to transfer the ink to create a print.

As we had previously been drawing self portraits, I hit upon the idea of using possibly the world's most famous portrait - The Mona Lisa - as a starting point but then incorporating Da Vinci's 'grotesque heads' as a way to subvert the accepted ideals of beauty as represented by the iconic image of The Mona Lisa, hence the title of the workshop.

Using print outs of the famous painting and a range of 'grotesques', I first created several prints of 'Mona' by overlaying my paper onto a inked surface and making free hand sketches and repeating, using the same paper but overlaying the original drawing with that of a grotesque face, leading to some very interesting results!

On this page, you will see a slideshow of my results and a more detailed example of the process below.

This is a workshop I have taught many times to various groups and it remains one of my favourites!