Watercolour on paper

Bruce Robertson · June 26th, 2007, 04:01 AM

Greg answered a question I asked recently about screen printing 'oil paint' on canvas saying that the irregular surface would cause pooling of the ink/paint and create unnaceptable dot gain destroying the image. He said that historically people who do this have faked a raised canvas effect using presses. I've also personally seen flat images 'raised' with an overcoat of lumpy varnish.

I have a feeling that in China they have maybe developed a system of printing oil paintings or at least some of it and then finishing it by hand. I don't know. Labour is still very cheap in China so maybe all their copies of old masters are actually hand painted. China is a remarkable place and indeed anything is possible there. One evening while wandering through Beijing looking for a grocery shop a young girl took my hand and led me off through alleyways to a 'studio' where she and some other young girls were producing oil paintings. I knew these were mass produced - but I still have no idea how. The girls had an art mistress who apparently could do calligraphy with two hands at the same time and they held her in great esteem for this. I was of course now completely lost and she had to take me to the grocery store and then back to where she found me.

I wonder what the situation is with watercolour on heavy paper? I remember seeing a market trader from Germany in Edinburgh snapping at a woman who very innocently asked how her watercolours were 'made' because she had said they had a 'special technique'.

I had already bought one of her, it has to be said, beautiful 'watercolour' 'paintings' of a still life with flowers (I wouldn't have bothered if I had seen her being rude to that lady - but I had already bought it).

At the time I noticed she was being cagey about the technique and I now wonder why. I still have that picture framed at home and I'm going to have a much closer look at it when I get back (Unfortunately I'm away from home at the moment).

Which brings me back to printing watercolour on paper. Do people do this?

Bruce

Greg hamrick · June 26th, 2007, 10:00 PM

They sure do Bruce,
Water color and screen printing go way back in China...just how long is still under investigation...but it has been done for several thousand years.
They did it with silk, and so did we until the fifties...that's when a big boom hit the market for man-made mono-filaments like polyester. Yet we still call it (Silk Screening).
But who cares!!!!!
We're just printers looking for a better way to do it and maybe, just maybe, come up with something that can change it all.
I say we go to Edinburgh and educate that ole'.....well....I guess she needs a secret to break up a mundane time, so let's leave "her" alone.

Just remember to work harder not smarter....no that's not it....work hard not smart...no, dangit....work hardly smarter.......Hardly Work Smarter!...............................Just Work!

.

Bruce Robertson · June 27th, 2007, 06:04 AM

Okay, so getting less philosophical and a little more practical about it all; if an image was created in Photoshop and was to be screen printed and then sold on as 'watercolour on paper', what ink/paint would be used to do this?

Greg hamrick · June 28th, 2007, 06:17 AM

I'm not sure about the name brand of powdered paint, I think it was Tempra, it was a water-color that you mixed just like any other watercolour paint. I used some of it years ago when I tried to paint watercolour...I sucked at it and quit.
I would say that if you were going to do that, use a mesh count not less than 300 so that the liquid won't flow through without light pressure. Or better yet, use an air-brush to paint through the screen...I've done that with other types of paint with good results...and you can have more control over the amount of paint your putting on the paper stock.

If you get it to work, share with us the "how to's" if you will. Good luck.

Bruce Robertson · June 29th, 2007, 11:16 AM

Thanks Greg,
I've been learning and playing with Photoshop for a while now and then I focussed on taking screengrabs from movies and creating vector graphics and separations and that kind of thing in Corel. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this yet. I've just bought a screenprinting carousel; it's only four screens but fine for learning. I'll be picking it up next week but probably not using for a while to come. I've also been doing a lot of photography and creating composite images in Photoshop from the various images. It's the design side that I like most.
I'm going to play around a bit and see what works.
It's great having guys like yourself around with such a wealth of experience that I can bounce off.
Many thanks.
All the best,
Bruce.