Pages: 1 2 [3]   Go Down

Author Topic: Epson Watercolor  (Read 12646 times)

shadowblade

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2839
Re: Epson Watercolor
« Reply #40 on: April 08, 2014, 12:57:40 pm »

Pura Velvet reaches a satin-going-on-glossy finish after 2 generous sprayed coats of usually pure Gloss Timeless slighty diluted with water.  At the end of those 2 coats I have applied roughly 15 to 18 ml of undiluted Timeless per square foot of coated print, which is just beginning to look more gloss than satin.  Epson Cold Press needs a third coat to be as glossy, it's either more absorbent or has some microporous action going on.  That's in the ball park for obtaining the same amount of gloss on matte canvas.

4 or 5 coats reaches as close to a mirror like finish as you can get, but with a suggestion of low frequency orange-peel texture that keeps it from being called perfectly glossy.  But quite stunning nevertheless, has much the same impact as a face mounted glossy and is a killer way to show inherently bright images.  I bet Dan could get a lot smoother coat than I can.

You can reach a satin gloss with just a single pass of well-rolled Timeless, same slight dilution.  I've gotten quite good at that for my 8x44 inch test strips, but would still need to practice for anything bigger.  In my limited rolling experience I have noticed that subsequent rolled on layers tend to develop very obvious orange-peel texture, maybe my technique needs work.  For now I would stick with spraying for building up more than one layer.

Have not experimented with matte coatings at all.  While I like the look of uncoated matte prints, applied matte coatings have always seemed to me to degrade the image, which leaves glossy as my only option for a rich looking print.

The bottom line with the glossy coatings is that you can get a lot of variation based on how you apply the coatings.  Wet coatings favor high gloss, sparse coatings favor a more matte-like effect, and there are countless possibilities in-between.

You can learn absolutely nothing about how coatings look from images on the internet.  Make a list of all the nearby photo galleries and exhibitions, and see how many you can visit this weekend.

Make a lot of the same print, at several different densities, and start coating.  Truly useful knowledge relating to print making is not available on the cheap.  I figure it might be possible to become fairly proficient at in a couple days by coating maybe 50+ pieces.  If I was giving a class, I would assign at least 100 prints at 13 x 19 just for coating practice.   Random attempts are relatively futile, one needs systematic doggedness to actually learn anything.

And if Epson ever has a booth at a trade show near you, be sure to go if only to see their absolutely amazing exhibition of every one of their papers, superbly printed with an image appropriate to the media and nicely framed without glass.  You'll learn a lot from that, as I did.

Out of interest, why do you dilute it with water, and how much water do you add? Timeless comes pre-diluted, unlike Glamour II. Does the water help it soak through the inkjet layer into the base, or does it make for a smoother surface? What does it do to the drying time?

By 'generous' coating, do you mean spraying horizontally and then vertically, prior to allowing it to dry, as a single 'coat', or would you consider that to be two coats?

Also, do you know whether Timeless Matte or Lustre would soak through in the same way as Gloss?
« Last Edit: April 09, 2014, 02:19:52 am by shadowblade »
Logged
Pages: 1 2 [3]   Go Up