Next colour for the Heron.

Back to the studio to face the first layer with the new inks that furred up the surface of my Hodomura paper.

Decided the new ink was just too much of an unknown quantity to continue with after the first layer was just so awkward. ~went back to my tried and tested Graphic Chemical water based inks for the next colour.

Here I have rolled out the graduation for the next layer..

The ink seemed to go over the top okay and the colour/tone mix works quite well, I was particularly pleased with the feel of the heron flying low over the lake. it has a nice look of space around it, like it really is floating through the air in that languid way that herons fly.

Gave me the enthusiasm to carry on. Cutting detail out of the mountain, Tryfan, and cross hatching the clouds to break up their tone.

Then to the black:

Print turned out okay but had a lot of problems with this print, even once I had swapped back to my original inks. I shall just copy in the comments from my notebook made during printing;

"Over printing the Graphic CVhemical (GC) needed to be much darker than expected to cover (The Schmincke) realised the inks absorb differently. Looks like the GC is beinbg absorbed through the Schmincke (S) resulting in a ridge as the compression of printing pushes the second layer of inbk through the first.

Black ink, GC, not going on very well. Almost impossible to get the dark saturated colour I use the black for. Some signs of paper damage also. is it because it is going over the original layer of S? Or has the S ink damaged the surface of the paper?

None of the colours have been particularly flat or saturated.

Almost over inking the block to get sufficient coverage, but then almost pulling the paper surface off when pull the print.  Have to pull the paper incredibly slowly and gingerly to avoid damage"

Same inks I always use, same rollers and same paper. Except it is a brand new batch. Slightly different Hodomura paper causing the problem? Starting to get paranoid and obsessively stroking the surface of the paper to feel if it has a different texture to previous Hodomura.

Tune in next time to read the thrilling solution to the mystery of "When prints go bad"