Monotypes + Painting Cels, 9/16/2025
September 16th, 2025
Hi there, blog. Long time no see. When I opened this document I was thinking I’d retrace my steps and reflect on an entire week of studio work, but I’m going to take it easy on myself and only write in detail about today. It’s been a very productive week though, I’ll tell you that.
I have to go teach in about an hour here. Last week my Dr.Pepper before class really came through but this week I think I have a bit of a cold. Dr. Pepper may not be the right Dr. for this scenario. Question: Is it possible to live in NYC and feel 100% healthy all the time? Ever since I moved here 6 years ago I feel like I catch some kind of nasty cough or runny nose every other month. Maybe I just sound like a sickly country bumpkin now. Anyways, coughing or not, I still get nervous for class every time… However I’m glad to report that this semester’s group is very lively and eager to participate. Yesterday we had a great 20 minute-long discussion about just one very short text. It was a pretty exciting discussion, too– I even learned a lot. Could this be my most successful semester yet?
In other news, I will be starting printmaking class tomorrow at the Art Student’s League. The first method I am going to learn is B/W lithography. I have a bunch of images that I’m thinking I could use as a starting point. Maybe I will print out a B/W image of one or two of my paintings and try to make a tonal print version of a composition I already have. This will be my first real foray into the world of printmaking and I am really excited to try it. It’s going to feel so scientific. Last week I did try to do a couple of monotypes– one with oil paint and the other with Ecoline water based inks. It was a simple process but I’m not thrilled with the results. I just did a quick painting on acetate then pressed it down as hard as I could onto a piece of smooth Bristol paper to make the imprint. Actually, I like the way the ‘plates’ look after having been pressed once more than I like the resulting print on the Bristol:
Bottom left is the monotype print. The ‘plate’ I printed from is on the right, taped to a light pad. The watercolor I traced to get the basic image for the monotype is above.
That brings me to today’s studio activities. Of course, I first did my 15 minutes of Frog Ephemera. Then I was back to work on my rotoscoped animation, and I’ve decided to use the ‘plate’ from my monotype as a background to work on. It has a nice foggy, blurry look to it. And the fact that it’s transparent means I could layer something else underneath it. Maybe a black piece of paper could be nice? Today I started painting the cels– oil on acetate. I am not using the traditional cel painting method (ink on one side, thick pools of opaque paint on the other) because I like the wispy brushy look of oil on acetate. It compliments the foggy look of the background and really helps me get to that sort of familiar/unfamiliar dream-like feeling I’ve been going for. I want to title the finished piece “Dream Door”. I painted 6 frames today before getting tired of the process. Those 6 frames took me about 2.5 hours. This will be a 24 frame animation, so we have quite a ways to go!
The first four cels taped to my wall cause I got no where else to put them while they dry.
I didn’t get in to the studio today until around 1 p.m. because I first stopped out at Mono No Aware in Brooklyn to pick up a roll of 16mm film. It was a really interesting place. When I called them to let me in someone answered the phone “Mahalo.” He was a nice guy with one huge dredlock who apparently studied animation in the Czech Republic. We were both wearing striped shirts. Animators are always so quirky. Speaking of quirky animators, I now need to reach back out to Matthew Thurber and see if he’s still willing to teach me how to use a Bolex. Then I can get this even more labor-intensive and slow-moving animation process rolling!
In between all of that stuff, I’ve been chipping away at various paintings, including the commission I mentioned in my first blog post. It’s been really nice to work with this client and so far has been giving me the confidence that maybe I could take more commissions in the future. The painting is coming along really well and it’s a totally new subject matter for me, so I’m learning a lot. I don’t want to say too much because I think it’s proprietary. Maybe when it’s finished I can share more info. One thing I can say is that the oil ground is HIGHLY superior to the acrylic gesso so far. Loving the texture and the lack of absorbancy. My colors look just as vibrant today as they did when I applied them yesterday.
Til next time!
–Finn
