Baren Digest Wednesday, 5 February 2003 Volume 22 : Number 2118 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: GraphChem#aol.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 08:21:20 EST Subject: [Baren 20624] Re: Water-based paint Rebecca Salter's book Japanese Woodblock Printing (GCI product 70710 -$17.00) is a great book, and one that I would recommend to most printmakers involved in relief work. We picked up that title along with a number of others from a contact at the IMPACT show in Helsinki two years ago. One of the others that I've mentioned previously is The Art & Craft of Woodblock Printmaking - a Finnish book that mnay of you have already purchased. Sorry if these postings are starting to sound like a commercial, but we try to have it all, books, Akua-Kolor products, resingrave, oriental papers etc, as well as our own products. Dean - ------------------------------ From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Melissa-unjaded?= Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 13:22:55 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Baren 20625] Re: preserving lino blocks --- rhudson#together.net wrote: > Does any one have any suggestions on ways to > preserve old carved lino > blocks that may be cracking? Had a friend ask and > as I'm a wood person I could > make any suggestions other than perhaps treating > them like floor tiles. > Thanks! > Ray Hudson rubbing them in a liberal ammount of oil, wrapping them in up in cloth and keep them in a cool yet dry place may prolong their life. xxmj ===== "when im good im very very good, but when im bad im better ;p"!! ------------------------------ From: Barbara Mason Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 07:27:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Baren 20626] Tuesday What a nice surprise to wake up to 25 messages on the baren...maybe I forgot to read them yesterday! Julio, Glad you are feeling better and are up and around. We need all our printmakers well and working on their latest prints. Michael, I think it is very interesting that your work has political overtones, I never noticed that but possibly there is symbolism I am not understanding. Great work. I always enjoy seeing it. Jean, put our new print up for us to see, It sounds wonderful. To all the messy hanga people....my thinking on this is that it is like anything else, once you get a little control the mess goes away. I am thinking of when I was first a printmaker, I had ink all over myself and all over the room. Now I am tidy and rarely get ink where I don't want it. I am messier with hanga, probably because I don't do it as much and don't wipe the block edges carefully enough. Just another step to forget part of the time when learning a new process. Although I have been learning hanga for 4 years, I probably actually have about 6 months total time doing it. Too many other things going on in my printmaking life. So maybe in another 10 years or so I will have clean margins....could happen. In the mean time, just overlook those edges. I have eliminated solvent from my studio and as you know I am primarily an oily person. I clean up after oil with water. It works real well. Just spray and wipe. Amazing how well it works, even on plates. However after spending a few weeks using the akua kolor new intaglio waterbased inks, I may not be such an oily person. So far I really like them, they wipe well and roll out well. I am becoming a convert to waterbased materials. I personally enjoyed the political back and forth, I think it was related to printmaking. Sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to talk. There is only so much we can say about process and after 50 times saying it the list gets pretty quiet. So while I would hate for the list to become a political forum, I think info related to both topics is fine here. Politics and printmaking do have a long history of a hand and hand relationship. Time to get off the computer and on with the day! Keep printing, Best to all, Barbara ------------------------------ From: Louise Cass Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 10:36:34 -0500 Subject: [Baren 20627] "fine art print publishers" Hi Sarah - I received the same message from these people some time last year - I replied and was sent gorgeous brochures of artists I believe they'd promoted (they are simply artistists' reps) to various printing/publishing companies - I didn't pursue it as I assumed somewhere along the way there would be a large fee for promoting one as well as having to prepare a suitable package for marketing - I can't see that there would much profit to the artist in this kind of mass production and there is so mush competition - good, bad and indifferent! Cheers, Louise Cass To Baren members re politics and art: Is it permitted to forward a letter suggesting people put their energy (once a week for a few minutes) into thinking PEACE, COMPASSION and LOVE around the world (nothing about politics or conflict)? http://www.LCassArt.com ------------------------------ From: "Maria Diener (aka Arango)" Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 08:19:35 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20628] RE: "fine print" question They make posters. You probably have to front money for this privilege. Because I have a website I get messages like this one all the time, worded almost exactly the same way: "I came across your artwork in...blah blah..." sometimes they even have: "I particularly like the piece named blah blah" (incidentally that's one of my favorites too ;-). One day I received the exact message from three different salespeople from the same outfit, I forget which; must have been "marketing day". Anyhow, with just a phone number, I wouldn't trust them, they want to call and put the hard sale on you and it will sound so good over the phone you'll find yourself running for your checkbook. On that, please note that I have myself tried many things, even knowing they were a bit shady so I'm not just opining but giving some experienced advice (which you can take or leave). Call it an experiment for a future book, but I almost enjoy seeing through some of these "offers" just to see how far these folk will go. Anyhow, the M.O. is so similar with all these folk that it's almost like they are going to the same scam-the-artist school. This is not to say they don't make posters and sell them, just that they have probably hundreds of artists forking out money up front for a service they know is not going to pan out--for the artist, that is. Painters don't have much of a choice when it comes to marketing and usually are more desperate due to the price of their originals. IMHO, printmakers should abstain; the day I have to explain to a prospective customer what a "woodcut reproduction" is and why my "original woodcut prints" are different, I will go back to being an Exercise Physiologist. Now everyone give me 3 sets of 50 sit-ups, please, on three...and a one, and a two... Maria <||><||><||><||><||><||> Maria Arango Las Vegas Nevada USA www.1000woodcuts.com <||><||><||><||><||><||> > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-baren#ml.asahi-net.or.jp > [mailto:owner-baren#ml.asahi-net.or.jp]On Behalf Of Cucamongie#aol.com > Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 7:18 PM > To: baren#ml.asahi-net.or.jp > Subject: [Baren 20617] "fine print" question > > > Hi folks, I recently received this email, I'm assuming that this > is a sleazy operation whereby they make endless machine-made > copies of your handmade prints. Anyone else heard of this > operation? Of course their website doesn't even really tell what they do. > here's the email they sent me. > > Subj: Fine Art Print Publishers > Date: 2/2/2003 6:11:31 AM Eastern Standard Time > From: Larry Winters > To: > Sent from the Internet (Details) > > I came across your Artwork at www.sarahhauser.womanmade.net and > feel that your art would be ideally suited for the Fine Art Print Market. > > The Royalty Print market is extremely profitable, and we can get > your work seen by over 750 publishers. > > Please click below for more information. > > http://www.sponsoranartist.com/publish.htm ------------------------------ From: Charles Morgan Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 08:23:06 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20629] Re: Water-based paint Ignasi, I am going to suggest something completely different to you, which will no doubt cause the purists to scream. Note, I am a rank novice at this, having been doing woodblock printing for only about a year. But this technique works for me. I could never see the logic behind putting the pigment and the rice paste on the block separately and then trying to mix them on the block with a brush. I found the process messy and found it difficult to control the intensity of the pigment. So, here is what I have been doing. In a separate bowl, mix your pigment and rice paste to get the color and intensity you want. Experiment by brushing a little out on a test strip, just as with water color. Thin the rice paste/pigment mixture with water until it is a little thinner than honey ... you will get the feel of how much to thin after a very little while. To ink the block, dip just the tip of a foam brush into the mixture and lightly apply it to the surface of the block on just those areas that you want to print. Smooth it out with the foam brush. Oblique light will let you see any spots you have missed. Do not scrub the block or try to smear great quantities of paste/pigment every where. A light application on the raised areas is sufficient. Then just place your paper and burnish with your baren. Of course, as with any other inking technique, you have to be careful not to fill in fine lines. I keep a small pointed bamboo skewer and a small stiff bristle brush handy to clean out fine lines and to clean around the edges of the carving that tend to build up paste/pigment. I also have a brick wrapped in paper which I keep handy. After burnishing, I put the brick on one end of the paper to hold it in place on the block. Then I lift the other end of the paper and look at the print. If there are light spots, I re-ink those areas, lay the paper back down, and burnish again. Mixing the ink and the paste together before applying it to the block makes more sense to me than trying to mix them on the block. And for me, this method is much less messy and gives more control than the traditional technique. Whatever works is good ... try it, you might like it ....... Cheers ....... Charles At 11:26 AM 2/4/03 +0100, you wrote: >Hello, > >Here goes my first question to the forum (and sorry if it's a pretty basic >one)... > >I use water-based paint in my prints, and it works fine for me when I have >to print solid colours. But I have trouble with fadings; if I try to >dilute the pigment, the texture becomes irregular and patchy, with little >droplets and bubbles forming on the block surface. So lately I have been >using white paint, so that it's easier to go from, say, dark blue to white >in a more or less smooth pattern. Works OK, but the problem is that I hate >white paint! Probably because I've always liked watercolour painting, I >like the paper to shine through instead of smudging it in white... > >And the thing is, I don't know what the rice paste is really for and if it >is usable with the type of paint that I use, or it's just good for >Japanese pigments... I don't know if I make any sense, but I would like to >know what your thoughts are on this. > >Thank you very much! >Ignasi >Madrid (Spain) > ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 11:01:09 -0600 Subject: [Baren 20630] Re: Water-based paint At 11:26 AM 2/4/2003 +0100, Ignasi wrote: >I use water-based paint in my prints, and it works fine for me when I have >to print solid colours. But I have trouble with fadings; if I try to >dilute the pigment, the texture becomes irregular and patchy, with little >droplets and bubbles forming on the block surface. So lately I have been >using white paint, so that it's easier to go from, say, dark blue to white >in a more or less smooth pattern. Works OK, but the problem is that I hate >white paint! Probably because I've always liked watercolour painting, I >like the paper to shine through instead of smudging it in white... > >And the thing is, I don't know what the rice paste is really for and if it >is usable with the type of paint that I use, or it's just good for >Japanese pigments... I don't know if I make any sense, but I would like to >know what your thoughts are on this. > >Thank you very much! >Ignasi >Madrid (Spain) Dear Ignasi, I'm not sure how you are applying your 'paint', but you can try dampening the block with some water in the part where the gradation is to take place, then apply the pigment where it is to sit, then use a bit of rice paste (thinned to consistency of heavy cream) at the interface and brush in the direction of the interface between pigment and water -- you should get a nice gradation. Excess water will create the granular effect (goma-zuri) you describe. Rice paste is used as a vehicle, like water, but its viscosity prevents the pigment particles from flocking together into 'clumps'. Maybe this will help? - -- Mike Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: "Joseph Sheridan" Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 13:01:41 -0500 Subject: [Baren 20631] Re: Water-based paint Ignasi May I suggest you take the time to look in the Baren website library. The Yoshida Hiroshi book on woodblock printing is there to read/download. There is a wealth of information on the Japanese technique. The entire discipline is explored and explained. Read through the entire book because gems of wisdom pop up throughout the book. I found that trying to solve one problem (rice paste or bokashi) in the Japanese technique was not the answer. Rather to understand (.. try to understand) the fundamental process, which Yoshida explains in detail, gave me a reason to choose .. how much water.. how much paste.. and how much color. Forget the white paint.. learn the technique. Joe Sheridan - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Lyon" To: Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 12:01 PM Subject: [Baren 20630] Re: Water-based paint > At 11:26 AM 2/4/2003 +0100, Ignasi wrote: > >I use water-based paint in my prints, and it works fine for me when I have > >to print solid colours. But I have trouble with fadings; if I try to > >dilute the pigment, the texture becomes irregular and patchy, with little > >droplets and bubbles forming on the block surface. So lately I have been > >using white paint, so that it's easier to go from, say, dark blue to white > >in a more or less smooth pattern. Works OK, but the problem is that I hate > >white paint! Probably because I've always liked watercolour painting, I > >like the paper to shine through instead of smudging it in white... > > > >And the thing is, I don't know what the rice paste is really for and if it > >is usable with the type of paint that I use, or it's just good for > >Japanese pigments... I don't know if I make any sense, but I would like to > >know what your thoughts are on this. > > > >Thank you very much! > >Ignasi > >Madrid (Spain) > > > Dear Ignasi, > > I'm not sure how you are applying your 'paint', but you can try dampening > the block with some water in the part where the gradation is to take place, > then apply the pigment where it is to sit, then use a bit of rice paste > (thinned to consistency of heavy cream) at the interface and brush in the > direction of the interface between pigment and water -- you should get a > nice gradation. Excess water will create the granular effect (goma-zuri) > you describe. > > Rice paste is used as a vehicle, like water, but its viscosity prevents the > pigment particles from flocking together into 'clumps'. > > Maybe this will help? > > -- Mike > > Mike Lyon > mailto:mikelyon#mlyon.com > http://www.mlyon.com > ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 10:31:44 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20632] Show Announcement This just came in from Matt Brown, who was one of the charter members of Baren. Anyone in the area should be sure to see this. I would love to be at the opening and see the Print Demonstration! Wanda Matt Brown wrote: I would like to post following show announcement: "Wood and Water" Color Woodblock Prints Matt Brown Paulette Nejko Lynita Shimuzu Sandy Wadlington March 1 - April 26, 2003 Opening & Print Demonstration: March 1, 1 -5. Wenniger Gallery 19 Mt. Pleasant St., Rockport, MA www.wennigergallery.com Open daily 11 - 5 (978-546-8116). ------------------------------ From: "Jeanne N. Chase" Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 14:14:20 -0500 Subject: [Baren 20633] Pencils This is not about woodblock printing but it is related as we all draw. I have been trying to find Eagle pencils. But cannot seem to find them in any catalogs or art stores. Anyone have any idea where they went. I was in love with the texture of the pencil in my drawings and miss them very much. Derwent seems to have taken over the pencil market. Jeanne N. ------------------------------ From: John Oliver Dendy Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 11:34:27 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20634] Re: Pencils At 02:14 PM 2/4/2003 -0500, you wrote: > This is not about woodblock printing but it is related as we all draw. >I have been trying to find Eagle pencils. But cannot seem to find them in >any catalogs or art stores. Anyone have any idea where they went. I was in >love with the texture of the pencil in my drawings and miss them very >much. Derwent seems to have taken over the pencil market. Jeanne N. ***************** Hi Jeanne! The quality drawing pencils market seems to be in a state of flux. My old standard for the full range of hardness, Berol Turquoise - has also disappeared. Sanford had taken over the brand. (I think Eagle owned the mark at one point too.) We may all have to re-calibrate to Derwent, Lyra or Staedtler hardness scales. Has anyone been through the changeover yet? Suggestions, comments on quality, recommendations? John Dendy The Treetops Studios Saanichton ------------------------------ From: "Robert Canaga Gallery" Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 11:49:57 -0800 Subject: [Baren 20635] Re: Pencils Derwent has indeed taken much of the market. Try Lyra http://www.lyra.de/e/produkte/schreibe/start.html pencils. They are among the finest made. Eagle brand I think was owned by Standard and sold or discontinued. Derwent, as you know, is a subsidiary of the company who owns Winsor Newton, Liquatex, Lafranc, and about a thousand more brands, so they do have a heavy hand in the market. RC ------------------------------ From: richard stockham Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 12:45:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Baren 20636] Re: Apropos politics and art Rregarding the discussion on the tension between politics and art I saw this site on Picasso's Guernica http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html For a long time I had not understood the particular references of the painting, having understood merely that it was about the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. The context specifics do add significantly, though, to my appreciation of the painting. And lest it seem a curiosity from a time and place as remote as a Hemingway novel, in the news today was an article about how a tapestry version of Guernica, that hangs outside the chambers of the UN Security Counsel, has been covered with a blue drape so as not to offer any offence when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell comes tomorrow. Richard Stockham Birmingham, Alabama ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 16:31:46 -0600 Subject: [Baren 20637] Re: Water-based paint Charles writes: "....Mixing the ink and the paste together before applying it to the block makes more sense to me than trying to mix them on the block. And for me, this method is much less messy and gives more control than the traditional technique." I am another rank beginner but let me make a point for not pre-mixing your paste and pigment. IT IS all about control! A bowl of pigment (specially if it has a little alcohol mix in there) will last for a very long time and can be continued to be used during the many days a printing session runs. But once you combine the paste and the pigment you have put a death sentence on that bowl of pigment. The paste is only good for a day or so and it almost always starts to harden/solidify/whatever...making it very hard to control...also I try not to get too much paste on my good brushes....I always make fresh paste since it takes only a couple of minutes to boil a tablespoon of flour in a pot of water. Re control....unvariably..somewhere along your printing run ( if you are doing more than 10-15 prints) ...the block/brush/paste/pigment balance will go a little off....you will notice the block a little runny/sticky......whatever...a way around this is to not add paste for a sheet or two to let the block/mixing-brush balance itself out. I have some video where the japanese printer skips the paste every other sheet... So...I think the opposite is true...keeping paste and pigment separate give you more control...just my opinion.... Having said that, I do believe there are times when it is desirable to do just as Charles mentions...when mixing color for very small areas, fine lines, etc....I think Dave spoke about it once...perhaps something to do with delicate colors ????? Check it out: http://www.barenforum.org/encyclopedia/entries/onepoint/018_24/018_24_frame.html I do agree with Charles other point... "Whatever works is good ... try it, you might like it ......." thanks...Julio Rodriguez ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V22 #2118 *****************************