And, of course, I’m not talking about lemon sorbet here…

I was getting ready to put some new colors down on the palette this morning when I realized I was out of room. I tend to add new colors as I need them and work around the old ones because I can’t bear to wipe it off – I love how the colors mingle and sometimes consider the palette itself, a work of art!

But I was completely out of room today and really needed to start fresh.  Then I remembered watching a video on monoprinting awhile back and decided to ‘save’ my palette first.  This may be standard practice for other encaustic artists, but  since I’m fairly new at it – it was one of those light bulb moments for me.

And I thought I’d share it here with you too (just in case).

Here’s what I did:

Here’s the palette before…

For my first pass, I decided to copy the palette as is.

I’m using Japanese rice paper here…

Just lay the paper down on the surface…

I had to help it along a bit by using my hake brush…

Here’s the first pulled print…

But don’t think you have to leave things just as they are – you can always make marks (as I did in the next photo) or add more paint (as I did in the second photo using a pigment stick)…

And here’s that print…

The great thing about monoprinting is that you can use the prints in a multitude of ways.  You could simply be done with the piece and frame it or you could incorporate it into another work.  You can cut them up, leave them whole, layer them, add more paint, collage with them, etc., etc., etc.

Its a great way to record color palettes or to simply build up a stash of original prints for use at another time!