A key focus in my printmaking is experimentation with different inks:
- the range of different effects that can be achieved through different mark-making (including dripping, dribbling) and mark-making implements (including fingers, masks and palette knives)
- how inks react with different mediums like impasto, transparency medium and also water and solvents
- interactions of different types of ink, both used together to produce blending and viscosity effects and also overlaid
- the effects of different types of plate like soft-foam, foamboard, cardboard and collagraph textures
- the effects of paper texture, thickness and dampness
- effects of different hand printing and pressures of the press
For ink experimentation with mixed inks see:
- Project 2.2: Random Abstract Prints
- Project 5.2 forthcoming
Although I also use oil-based inks, I am particularly interested in pushing the potential of water-based and water-soluble inks because I am allergic to solvents so can only use these in very small amounts. This means I also experiment a lot with inks during the cleaning-up process – rolling onto scrap paper and printing from the inking plate – in order to minimise the ink that needs to be cleaned off rollers and plates. These papers are then used in colllage.
Water-based inks
used in:
Schminke water-soluble inks
used in:
Water-washable oil-based inks
used in:
Holbein Duo water-soluble oil paint
Caligo safewash
Oil-based inks
Hawthorne ink
used in:
References and Resources
Graver, M. (2011). Non-toxic printmaking. London, A&C Black.
Hoskins, S. (2004). Inks. London, A&C Black.