Grant Project: The Paint Part I

My paper experiments are over and I have culled down my choices to 8 papers that I really like to work with (and I may be experimenting with two other papers later this year, we'll see how that goes). The next step in the process is paint. Which paint works best with which paper? I already knew that Windsor and Newton oil paints worked well because that was what I had initially began with and my prints were usually turning out with various degrees of success. I headed off to Jerry's Artarama in Raleigh and picked up seven different brands of oil paints. The first one I tried was Michael Harding's Artists Oil Colours in Lamp Black.

Immediately this paint is very different from Windsor and Newton's. It's smellier, felt oilier, and didn't rub off the print as nicely. I tried it with my narrowed down paper choices, and found that it worked the best with the smoother papers: Arches Platine, Stonehenge, and Fabriano Artistico Hot Press. These papers cleared off enough for me to add a second layer of paint to make the blacks even more rich and allowed the midtones in the prints to really come out. The other papers were muddy messes and while some may be sort of salvageable with the help of bleach, I know that they won't be great prints regardless.

Also with this round, I changed up my negative a bit. I was still using the print Hidden Oak, but thought that maybe if I changed a few things around in Photoshop, I could bring out the details in the image that I was really missing. Well, the new negative is a bust, so back to the old negative it is. By the time I find my favorite paint/paper pairings, I know I'm going to be very sick of looking at this image.




Results of the paint experiments part I:  Michael Harding's works amazingly well on the smoother papers, and for that it really redeemed itself in my eyes. If the paper has any sort of texture on it though, it is basically a bust for this process.

Best one for this round: Arches Platine

There are nine papers here because I have a repeat. I have narrowed
down my paper selection to 8 total.