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Author Topic: Watercoloring on a print  (Read 2482 times)

Jackismo

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Watercoloring on a print
« on: June 28, 2018, 10:46:51 am »

I’m interested in printing a photo (Epson p800)and painting on that with watercolor and possibly graphite. I know I could use a regular watercolor paper like Arches, but I’ve read there are some issues with that and I’d like to try to use a paper intended for a printer as a first option. Can anyone make recommendations about photo paper that would accept watercolor?
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Paul Roark

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Re: Watercoloring on a print
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2018, 11:38:06 am »

I recommend you stick with Arches Hot Press 140.  It can work well in inkjet printers, and I think you'll find trying to paint on an inkjet paper might be more problematic. 

What I do to print on Arches is to, first, iron the deckle edges to flatten them, and otherwise clean them up a bit to avoid any head strikes.  I also, frankly, find the backside of Arches to be a better printing surface.  Among other things, it seems to have fewer "hairs" that can cast a (white) shadow.

I tape about a 2" by 5" piece of thin plain paper at the leading edge/side of the paper that the head's eye will see as the edge of the paper.  The printers use that first edge to center the image.   The deckle edge can mess up that process if you don't have that nice, straight edge of plain paper there instead of a deckle edge. 

A leading edge of plain paper can also help if you find the Arches is not feeding straight.  You might try just burnishing down the leading edge first and see if that is enough for your printer to feed the paper straight.

If you don't want the deckle edge, just trim the paper.  Then you can do away with the plain paper tricks, above.

If you want a reasonable dmax, it takes 2 MK positions.  The total MK ink load will be about 125.  For the dilute inks, keep their ink loads very low for the best image.  Obviously, being able to profile yourself with QuadToneRip or other rip is very helpful if no necessary.   I use a black and white inkset, as B&W is my medium.  I'm not sure any OEM color inkset can do a good job on Arches. 

I am a fan of Arches, and am looking at 2 full sheet prints in my office now that have deep black skies.  Floating under Museum glass, these displays are, in my view, about the best B&W medium there is.  With no coating to crack or deteriorate, I think they'll look better, longer than any inkjet paper print. 

My watercolor printing was, in part, developed for watercolorists, including a Guggenheim winning one.  I might add that the great disappointment for the latter artist was that she wanted to smear the carbon pigments with water, and they don't smear hardly at all with a wet brush.  That led to my matte B&W inksets with no binder in the dilution base.  It's not needed.  No binder means much less chance of clogging.  My ink costs for the matte B&W inkset are close to 1% of Epson's OEM small cart prices. 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com
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Robert Katz

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Re: Watercoloring on a print
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2018, 12:20:47 pm »

The other approach is to use a product called InkAide (https://www.inkaid1.com/).
This is a coating you brush on almost any substrate such as standard watercolor paper that will make it receptive to inkjet printing.
So, you can watercolor paint on paper, brush it with InkAide and then run it through your Epson printer.
It works quite well. There are variety of finished that you can select from the InkAid website.
Robert Katz
 
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Robert Katz
Robert Katz Photography

Jackismo

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Re: Watercoloring on a print
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2018, 12:35:04 pm »

Paul,
Thank you for your detailed response. It definitely will help as I work through this process. I may come back to you about the matte B&W inksets with no binder. I'm not sure I understand that.

Robert,
That's an interesting idea. It was actually the opposite of what I was thinking, i.e., to print first--probably monochromatic--and then watercolor on the print.
But, I'll look into the process you suggest. That might work better in some instances.

Thanks again to both of you.
Jack
« Last Edit: June 28, 2018, 01:00:42 pm by Jackismo »
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deanwork

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Re: Watercoloring on a print
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2018, 12:36:05 pm »

The best results I’ve gotten were also with Arches Hot Press and Cold Press. I would try both.

With the new increased dmax of the sure color printers you should be in good shape. For bw if you could use quadtone rip you have the ability to back off on your ink limits and if you have a spectro and profiling software you can make a quite accurate profile for color or bw.

My HP Z does a very nice job with these papers and even much less photographic media like awagami kozo and even very organic media I’ve gotten from India and Mexico.

If you don’t have the capability to make icc profiles you could hire someone to do that for you. You could find someone on the color management forum here to do that.

In the mean time I would try one of the kozo profiles for your printer - go to the Moab website, they should have them, as well as the freestyle website. And or do a google search for kozo profiles for Epson printers.  The color won’t be perfect but the ink limits will be closer.

John






I’m interested in printing a photo (Epson p800)and painting on that with watercolor and possibly graphite. I know I could use a regular watercolor paper like Arches, but I’ve read there are some issues with that and I’d like to try to use a paper intended for a printer as a first option. Can anyone make recommendations about photo paper that would accept watercolor?
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nirpat89

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Re: Watercoloring on a print
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2018, 01:13:47 pm »

I’m interested in printing a photo (Epson p800)and painting on that with watercolor and possibly graphite. I know I could use a regular watercolor paper like Arches, but I’ve read there are some issues with that and I’d like to try to use a paper intended for a printer as a first option. Can anyone make recommendations about photo paper that would accept watercolor?

You could also consider something like Bergger COT 320 (or Arches Platine or Hanhemuhle Platinum Rag) that have been used to do platinum/palladium over pigment (inkjet printing followed by pt/pd process.)  Check out works of Keric Koulis and Dan Burkholder.
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