Monotyping

The image is then transferred onto a paper by pressing the two together, using a printing-press, brayer, baren or by techniques such as rubbing with the back of a wooden spoon or the fingers which allow pressure to be controlled selectively.

[1] He began to make monotypes in the mid 1640s, normally working from black to white, and produced over twenty surviving ones, over half of which are set at night.

It is believed that the Flemish artist Antoon Sallaert created his first monotypes in the early 1640s and is therefore to be regarded as the inventor of this printing process.

Castiglione created most of his monotypes as black-field images by wiping away ink on a prepared plate thus producing white and grey lines.

[4] William Blake developed a different technique, painting on millboard in egg tempera to produce both new works and coloured impressions of his prints and book illustrations, including his Pity.

In the twentieth century the technique became more popular; examples include the extraordinary colorful monotypes created by Marc Chagall in the 1960s.

[5] Twenty-first century examples include works by Nicole Eisenman, Christopher Wool, Karen LaMonte, and Roman Turovsky.

Both involve the transfer of ink from a plate to the paper, canvas, or other surface that will ultimately hold the work of art.

The result has a chance element, often random and irregular which gives the print a certain charm, a technique famously used by British artist Tracey Emin, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, where the practice of monoprinting in general was regarded as "fake painting".