Negative working, peel developable, single sheet color proofing system having a crosslinked layer containing a polymer with phenolic moieties

A method for producing a negative image which comprises:

• A) providing a photosensitive element which comprises, in order from top to bottom:
• (i) a strippable, transparent cover sheet;
• (ii) a crosslinked layer, which comprises a polymer having phenolic groups;
• (iii) a color layer, which comprises an organic binder, a polymerizable monomer, a colorant, and optionally, a photoinitiator, wherein the binder is present in sufficient amount to bind the color layer components into a uniform film, wherein the optional photoinitiator, when present, is present in sufficient amount to initiate polymerization of the polymerizable monomer, wherein the polymerizable monomer is present in sufficient amount to provide image differentiation when the element is imagewise exposed to actinic radiation and wherein the colorant is present in an amount sufficient to uniformly color the color layer;
• (iv) a photoadhering layer, which comprises a photosensitive polymer having ethylenically unsaturated, photocrosslinkable groups and a molecular weight greater than 3,000, a polymerizable monomer having at least one ethylenically unsaturated group, and an optional photoinitiator, wherein the optional photoinitiator, when present, is present in sufficient amount to initiate polymerization of the polymerizable monomer and the crosslinking of the photosensitive polymer and wherein at least one of either the color layer or the photoadhering layer contains a photoinitiator;
• (v) a thermoplastic adhesive layer;
• (B) laminating the photosensitive element to a receiver sheet;
• (C) imagewise exposing the color layer and the photoadhering layer to actinic radiation through the transparent cover and crosslinked phenolic layer;
• (D) peeling apart the receiver sheet and the transparent cover sheet, leaving exposed areas of the color layer attached to the receiver sheet via the photoadhering layer and adhesive layer and unexposed areas being removed with the cover sheet and the crosslinked phenolic layer, thereby forming a colored negative image on the receiver sheet;
• and
• (E) optionally repeating steps A) through D) at least once wherein another photosensitive element having at least one different colorant, is transferred via its photoadhering and adhesive layers to the negative image previously produced on the receiver sheet.