In art printmaking, a technique prized because of its unique textural qualities. Monotypes are made by drawing with printer's ink or oil paint onto glass or a plate of metal or stone. The drawing is then pressed by hand onto a sheet of absorbent paper or printed on an etching press. The pigment remaining on the plate is usually insufficient to make another print unless the original design is reinforced. Subsequent prints invariably differ from the first, because variations in repainting and printing are inevitable. In the 19th century, William Blake and Edgar Degas experimented with the technique.

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