I went outside to find some leaves that I could use as a resist and a print, trying to find some leaves that had quite prominent skeleton veins so they would make a stand out print hopefully.
Just using a paintbrush I tried to make some bold shapes using the leaves. In the first image I tried to put the leaf as a resist but painting over the edges, this worked well for some and a little harder for others as they got softer out of daylight and picked. I tried a more splattered effect as well by flicking the paint around the shape of the leaves, again where the leaves were flat it was much better than where it was slightly risen or bumpy and did not get a great effect to it. I then used some sponges to add colour to the leaves, then printed these onto the page which worked out well.
The last photo shows a watercoloured background that I added to leaves to as it dried, this then left an impression on the page of the leaves, which is quite hard to see here but does have quite a nice flat effect to it.
The next idea I had was to try and do a monoprint using the leaf, the first step was to use the roller to make an even spread on this white board of paint, this probably could have been more even but I didnt mind a little bit of difference as the main part of it was going to be the leaf.
Place the leaf on top of this and push it down onto the paint, do not rub it, just push on it firmly all over it. When you pull it off then, there is an interesting print of left behind in the ink.
Next, place the leaf on another bit of paper out of the way, then put another fresh sheet on top of the ink with the leaf impression into it. When peeled off, this results in the third picture, a negative almost of what you see in the ink. This part is now done, so going back to the leaf, press down on this again firmly, and when this is removed, it will leave behind a print of the veins skeleton. Make sure to do this on the underside of the leaf, as this is where the veins are more prominent.
I also tried rolling the ink directly onto the leaf and printing it this way, I think this is probably the clearest print showing the most veins, the problem with this dock leaf is that the main vein in the centre is so big that it does not print the ink either side of it.
I have enjoyed this, I was thinking of trying to play round with bleach printing tomorrow as well using the leaves, so I’ll see how this turns out.
Tahlia Paige 