Sorta like Rothko

In addition to my printmaking and book making experiments, I like to paint. I took a class at AIS about Art and Design. It basically covered the Modernist period up to about the 80s. I used to think people like Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko were hacks. Once I understood the art and what they were trying to accomplish, it really spoke to me. I actually really liked the movement and it has been a major source of inspiration for me. Sadly I have not had a lot of time to do any art or anything lately. Its my Senior Year in school so I keep busy with all of that.

Anyways, I am going to speak a little bit about my color field experiments and how I go about creating them.

My latest work which I just finished and took me about 9 months to do. It only took me so long because I never had the time to work on it. The work acrylic and is 3 foot by 5 foot. It is one of my largest paintings to date.

I always stretch my own canvas for the most part. So after I made my canvas, gessoed and sanded it down I, created my first glaze. I used only 3 colors for my painting, and my first glaze is Quinacridone Gold.

To make my glazes I use Golden's Glazing Medium, it comes in either gloss or satin. I prefer the satin finish because I learned the hard way that gloss is a pain in the butt. When ever I tried to have something glossy photographed I would get lots of glare. So I stay away from glossy stuff. I mix a lot of medium to paint I do about 10 parts medium to 1 part paint. I don't really measure it out so I just eyeball it, so I may be using more medium than 10:1.

The glazing finish is sorta like regular matte medium. The difference is that the medium is a little bit more fluid (not much more) and dries much slower. It may also have some kind of flow releaser in it too. I think the glazing liquid is really just thinner medium, with lots of retarder and some flow releaser. However I have yet to find a satin medium anywhere besides this one. It even works great as a regular medium when mixed 1:1.

 

I start out with using a very thin glaze of Quinacridone Gold over the whole canvas. I then start to slowly build up certain areas with multiple glazes of Quinacridone Gold. Some areas have more depth than others.

 

My canvas sat in this state for close to 4 months. (for about 2 1/2 months it say just stretched)  would look at it everyday in my room and I was falling in love with just the Gold. It is one reason it took me so long to complete this painting. I wrestled with the idea of adding more colors as I had originally planned. I eventually got past just leaving it one color and added more.

 

I would test colors on paper and on test canvas to see how the colors would work before I went any further.

 

Here I am choosing some colors. I was planning on only using Quinacridone pigments because they are very transparent. 

Here is a test of the said colors. I kept putting glazes on top of glazes to see how they would layer on top of each other. I am glad I did this because I was planning on using Burnt Orange and Burnt Scarlet, but after seeing how they layered I was not happy with the result. I ended up using Quinacridone Sienna and Anthraquinoid red (not pictured). I actually really like the way Alizarin Crimson looked better, but since its a very fugitive color I choose some the other.

Here is my Second glaze of Quinacridone Sienna. I love how orange it looks compared to the Quinacridone Burnt Orange in the glaze. Although Rothko is a major inspiration for me, I refuse to do rectangles of colors like he did. I want to do something different something that feels a little bit more organic. I do not think too hard on where to put things, I just put them down as I feel they should go.

 

 

Here is the painting with the red added on top of the sienna.

 

I always varnish my paintings. Much like my choice in medium I like satin finishes. For acrylic paintings I use Golden's Polymer UV Satin Varnish. I use this because it cleans up with basically water. The varnish comes pretty thick and in order to use it I needed to thin it down with water. I use 1 cup water and 1/4 cup of varnish. Golden makes the varnish thick because if it were thinner the UV particles would not stay suspended in the solution. Do not let the thinned down varnish sit for more than a few days, because you will see the varnish start to separate and it is ruined at that point. The other thing is The varnish is removable with common household ammonia. Ammonia should also be used to clean out your varnish brush because if just water and soap are use it will leave the brush stiff. This still happens to me a little bit when I use ammonia to clean the brush but it is not that bad. If the brush does go stiff just rinse it out with ammonia and water and it will become soft again.

 

 

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An experiment in paper marbling

Its been about a month since my last update. School got pretty hectic for me.

For a while now I wanted to try my hand at paper marbling. I picked up a paper marbling kit by Jacquard Products. I got mine at Daniel Smith of course, but by the time of this writing they no longer carry the product so you will have to look online for it someplace else. It retailed from them for about $15.00.

Supply list:

• Jacquard Kit
• Paints (red, blue, yellow, green, white, black)
• Methocel
• Alum
• Instructions
• Acrylic Paint (choose your colors)
• Masa paper
• 1 gallon Bucket with a lid.
• Water Container
• Little containers for mixing paint (I used a plastic cupcake pallet)
• Oxgall Liquid
• Sponge
• Stir stick (I used a chop stick)
• News paper
• Clothes hangers (for hanging paper to dry)
• Masterson Acrylic Pallet (any kind of large flat pan will work)
• Eye dropper
• Rake (I used a modified comb)

Steps:

 

1. I pretty much followed the Jacquard instructions. I modified them a little bit. I mixed 2 TBS of the methocel with 1/2 gallon of hot tap water from the faucet. I put this into the 1 Gallon Container. I then mixed it up using a hand-held mixer. You can use a blender or a spoon, you just want to make sure its mixed up properly. Methocel is basically food safe, so its non-toxic. You can wash it down the drain, just use plenty of water. After wards I put the methocel mixture into the fridge over night. I did this before hand just because.
   
2. I then mixed the alum with hot water from the tap. The instructions didn't tell me how much for paper, only for cloth. I sorta guessed at it. I used about 1-2 TBS per pint of water.
3. I took 1 sheet of Masa paper and tore it down into quarters. I put 2 with the textured side up and 2 with the smooth side up. I am doing this because I am unsure which site will print best.
4. I soaked a sponge with the alum solution, I then ran the sponge over top surface of the Masa paper. You only need to do the top side, if you do get some on the back its not a big deal. The alum solution is used to make the paint stick to the paper better. Its like a primer or gesso for marbling.
   
5. I then hung the Masa paper up to dry. I made sure that I hung 2 sheets of paper with the smooth side up and the smooth side down. remember I am testing the paper to see how it reacts with the surface.
   
6. I took the methocel solution from the fridge (I actually waited an hour to let it warm up a little) and poured the whole thing into the Masterson pallet. I choose this pallet cause I had one handy. If you have a butcher tray that will work or any tray that is deep enough to hold the solution it is fine. Now the methocel solution will be thicker than water, this is normal.
   
7. After I got the solution poured and my paper was dry. I shook up the bottles of the paint Jacquard provided in their kit. I gently squeezed the bottles so a drop would appear on the surface of the methocel solution. You will notice that the paint will expand and move outwards. 
   
   
   
8. The first test was dropping in different colors (I used the red first, and then added yellow and blue. I noticed that the yellow and blue did not expand like the red did) and moving a chop stick around in a pattern. I first went up and down working my way from right to left, and then I went right to left working from the top to the bottom.
   
9. I then laid the paper down on the paint starting with one corner first then gently lowering the other corner down.
   
10. After that I grabbed the edge of the paper closest to me, and pulled it towards me. The whole time I made sure to scrap the bottom of the paper against the edge of the Masterson pallet. This will get all the methocel gunk off of the paper. Do not worry, it will not hurt the design.
    
11. I would then take strips of newspaper and draw it across the top of the methocel solution. This is to clean up the residue paint and to break the surface tension. I did this a few time in between each attempt.
1. At this point I noticed that the paint was sinking into the solution. I thought it was ruined, but I told myself I would keep trying to see what happened. I ended up pouring the mixture back into the bucket mixing everything together and pouring everything back into the pallet. That is why the solution looks green. It actually didn't hurt the process.
12. I then hung the paper on clothes hangers again to let it dry.
    
13. After the first attempt I tried a few other ways.
1. I dropped the paint into the solution and then in the middle of the drop used oxgall liquid. The oxgall liquid would create little rings by pushing the paint to the outside of the ring. I then also moved a stir stick around to create a pattern.
   
2. I tried the comb this time. I moved it from the left to the right and then from the top to the bottom.
3. This time also tried the comb again, but this time I mixed my own paints. (I was a little unhappy with the Jacquard paints.) I used a little bit of heavy body acrylic paints and about 2 tsp of water and mixed it all up together. I would use a eyedropper to drop paints onto the surface, and then ran the comb through them.
   
   

My thoughts:

• The paints in the Jacquard kit sucked. They were not very good, I had better results mixing my own. I think the problem was their consistency, some were thicker than others and wouldn't spread out very well. When I made my own they spread out very well. I was unhappy with the blue I used, it became to light. I would either use more paint (which may effect how it works or use a more opaque pigment. I used Cobalt Blue from Daniel Smith. I also used their Cad Orange Hue and Cad Yellow Deep Hue.)
• I think I may try Golden's Liquid Acrylics and see how they work. Maybe even their air brush colors since the are thinner.
• The red in the Jacquard Kit was over powering and became too pink for my liking. Again this is due to the quality of the paints. I think they cheaped out on them.
• The modified comb was not the best tool to use. It was too small. I would make my own with nails and wood.
• My methocel solution turned green on me. I think this is due to me over working the Jacquard paints on my first attempt. I noticed the other colors sorta sunk into the methocel when I used the comb or chopstick, but that is probably cause I overworked it, trying to get my designs. It may also be a little bit more beneficial to add a little bit more methocel to the solution, but I doubt it. When I emptied the bucket, there was a decent amount of really thick solution that sunk to the bottom and stayed there.
• I discovered that either side of the Masa worked good. I personally like the smooth side better. everything just looks a little bit cleaner.
• I think that if this was done with Oil Paints it might be easier. Since oil and water do not mix.

My First Attempt. It turned out decent.

 

 I was really unhappy with my Second attempt using Oxgall Liquid. I really think it was cause of the paints. They didn't spread out very well.

 

My 3rd attempt, was using the comb. It worked out decent, but I was still unhappy with how much I had to work at the design. Again this is a paint issue.

 

My 4th attempt was by far my favorite. This one I mixed my own paints. I was a little unhappy with the way the blue turned out but that is I think a pigment issue. Its just the way it ended working.

 

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Book review

I am going to review "Book Art Studio Handbook" by Stacie Dolin and Amy Lapidow.

First off this is a new book. A very new book. The publication date is 2013. We just recently started to carry it at Daniel Smith's Seattle SODO location.

This is the first new book binding book that I bought that I think is good. Most of the other books I have read that are recent (with in the last 10 years) are more geared towards creating what I consider crafty books.

The Book Art Studio Handbook has some really great projects in it. Such as the french box, book in a box, slip cases and travel journals. That is just a few of the projects in the book.

One of the things I dislike about this book that I feel its not good for the beginner. I feel like it is meant more for the bookbinder that knows what they are doing and is looking for some new projects, even though in the introduction it they state the book is to get people started bookbinding using the minimum equipment. It falls short in explaining how to build signatures and sew them together. Its not bad, but its just not excellent. It more or less glances over them. Plus the book calls signatures, text blocks instead of signatures. They do mention that text blocks can be called signatures but I feel that it can be confusing since they are not using what I consider a industry term.

What I do like about it, is that it explains a lot of things and makes it very easy for the beginner to understand. The explanation of the materials is great such as modifying your bone folder. They even tell you how to create a punch trough. However, like I mentioned before, I feel the part on sewing the signatures falls just a little bit flat.

Over all I would rate Book Art Studio Handbook, 4 out of 5 stars or a solid B+.

Today I got some other books from the Seattle Public Library. I plan on reviewing them too. some of them are older books and some pretty recent.

1. Bookbinding: A Step By Step Guide by Kathy Abbott (2010)
2. Bookbinding Techniques and Projects by Josep Cambras (2007)
3. Basic Bookbinding by A.W. Lewisv (1957)
4. Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction by Aldren A. Watson
5. A Pictoral Manual of Book Binding by Manly Banister (1958)

I also want to start trying to make my own marbled paper. So I got a book about it.

1. Making Your Own Marbled and Decorated Papers by Jane H. Reese

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Paint like Pollock

Ever since I took my Contemporary Art and Design Class I found that I actually like those abstract expressionism paintings. I used to think that people like Pollock and Rothko were talentless hacks. Anyone can do what they are doing. I never understood why would people want to create or buy art that looked like that. The class helped to expand my horizons. Since then I have come to love abstract expressionism. I have been exploring color field painting and found I really enjoy it. But i wanted to try something Pollock-esque. I finally broke down and bought Liquitex's String Gel.

I played quite a bit with it and created a small painting on a 16" x 20" canvas I had sitting around. I paint with acrylics on a regular basis, and I know my stuff. I typically mix about 50/50 medium/paint when I use gel mediums. That did not work with the string gel. I found that I had to mix about 25% paint and 75% medium. I needed more medium than paint. When mixed equeal parts of the string gel and paint I found that it did not led itself to pouring.  I found that the string gel didn't really lend its self to pouring even when I mixed it properly. Its tar like consistency just didn't lend itself to it. It would either just kinda plop onto the canvas and stay there ir stay on my pallet knife I was using to drizzle it on with. In addition it was also really transparent, which I didn't want. I wanted opaque paint. I found I could pour it but I needed a lot of it mixed up, cause there would still be like 1/2 of the stuff in my little pouring cups. It has a tendency to stick together and stuck to everything, thats why it makes a really nice stringy effect. I found that it worked best when I would fling the paint at the canvas. Of course makes a mess, so I was trying to fling paint and not get it all over my room. If I had access to a studio where it was OK to get paint everywhere and not an apartment, I think this would have worked out great.

Over all I recommend the string gel. However keep in mind, unless you have a really dense opaque acrylic paint to mix with the string gel, your mixture will be transparent. Also it is very glossy, I wish there was a matte version of this. I do not like gloss, it doesn't photograph good. Finally, it doesn't lend itself to pouring but rather being flung or thrown. Having a lot of space that you don't have to worry about getting paint on would be excellent.

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Yum, paper samples

I got home today and found I had a package waiting for me. It was some new paper samples I ordered from Mohawk. As a bookbinder I fell in love with Mohawk Superfine because there is a local supplier that sells it by the sheet and its relativity inexpensive. I ordered four different sample books (Superfine, Via, Loop and Strathmore writing pure cotton) and white and soft white samples to play with. Here are my initial opinions on the papers.



Mohawk Via: it has a bunch of nice pastel color and some very bright and bold colors. I do not however know why I would use the bright bold color, maybe as end papers. It does however offer a lot of different textures and of course weights. The smooth would be nice for pen and ink or any kind of printed project. I like the subtle texture of the vellum finish, I could see using for sketchbooks. You of course have your linen texture, which I am almost never a fan of and there is finally the felt. I really like the high amount of texture the felt has, it could make for some very interesting books. There is also a light cockle which doesn't excite me but the regular cockle seems like fun.

Mohawk Loop: I do not really see myself using these too much. The nice dark bold colors however could be great end papers. It does offer a wide variety of textures. It could be great for a crafty type art book. The silk coated paper is nice and glossy so it would be great for printed projects such as brochures and such. The Inxwell Vertical could also be a nice fun end paper too. It also has a 160 lb. cover weight too in 4 different colors. 

Mohawk Superfine: I use this stuff all the time in my book projects. It is one of my favorite papers. Its really nice because it comes in a 160 lb. smooth cover weight in ultra white, it is nice to find a paper that actually has a weight that heavy. Perfect for all sorts of printed projects that require a card stock. I am a huge fan of the eggshell texture. It has more texture than a vellum finish but not too much. To me its perfect.

Strathmore Writing Pure Collection: I used this one for a project that I wanted to have a high end look for. They offer it in a 100% cotton and a 25% cotton which when combined with the laid texture it has a great feel to it. It is however only offered in a writing weight. They do offer a bristol too in addition to a label stock too which can be used in a laser printer. There are also some really nice pretty pastel colors offered too.

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book press

I love to make books. Its sorta a hobby for me. Plus being a graphic designer Its fun to design them too. While most of the materials for book binding are pretty inexpensive, book presses, sewing frames, and the plough however are not. While I was reading some older books that are out of print now for many decades, I decided I would make my own book press, but I wouldn't just stop there. I would make an all in one press. My press would be a press, a sewing frame and a plough guide.
 
First off strength was important to me. I made sure to choose a hard wood to make my press. You can use pine but it bends too much for my liking. I decided on using Birch plywood and popular. Keep in mind I have already made this press and I will try to show step my step pictures if I can.
 
Materials:

• 3 pieces of 12" by 24", 1/2" thick birch plywood. (I got mine at a local art store, but most craft stores should probably carry it too. You can buy a whole sheet of birch plywood and cut it down, it is cheaper this way.)
• 2" by 2" peice of popular or other hard wood measureing 2' in length.
• 2 peices of 1/2" by 1 popular measuring 1' in length
• binders, davy or thick chip board. I use this just as a mat on the press, I want something that is both strong enough to handle a lot of abuse but cheap enough I can replace it. Self healing mats are too expensive to use for this.
• 2 bolts that measure 1/2" in diameter and are 6" long. Hardened steel should be use for the strength.
• 2 peices of 1' long 1/2" diameter threaded rod.  make sure it has the same thread count as the bolts and it is made of hardened steel too.
• 4 bolts that match the thread count for the bolts/rods.
• 4 wing nuts that also match the thread of the bolts/rods
• 8 large washers. also made of hardened steel.
• 2- 1/2" PVC couplers.
• Small peice of wood dowel. something like 1/4" thick and about 2' in length.
• 1" wide wood chisel. I am not using this to build my press but it will be part of the plough.

Tools

• Clamps
• Drill with a bit a little larger than 1/2" and another bit that is 1/4"
• Wood Glue
• possibly a saw to cut wood if you got wood that was too large.

The Press

Step 1

• Glue together 2 of the birch plywood planks using the wood glue. Clamp them together and let it dry for a few hours. I would personally wait over night to play it safe but a few hours should be good.

Step 2

• Set up the 3rd piece of plywood on top the other 2 and clamp them all together. DO NOT GLUE THEM TOGETHER. Measure 2, 1/2 inches in, on the short edge and draw a line runnign parrell to the edge. right in the middle of the line make a mark at about 6 inches. Go down to the corrner and make a mark along the line 1" form the edge. Do this for both sides. Finally drill through all 3 peices. You want the holes to all line up.

 
 
Step 3

• Remove the 3rd plank and then on the peice of popular drill a hole in the middle exactly 2-1/2" from the edge. The holes should line up the holes in the plywood.

Step 4

• Next glue the small 1/2" by 2" by 1' popular along the edge of the 2 plywood sheets that you glued together earlier. Clam them together and let them dry.

note on the left there are notches in the wood that I carved out. I made a mistake in measuring. yours should not look like that

 

Step 5

• Put the 6 inch bolts through the bottom of the press with a washer.

 

Step 6

• Cut a peice of binders / davy / chip board that is about 12" by 18". This will serve as a cutting mat

 

Step 7

• Set the 3rd piece of plywood on top through the bolts along with the poplar bar. Put 2 washers on top the the bar and finish it off with the wing nuts.

 

 

The press part of the Pernack All on One press is done. You can now start pressing books.

 

 

The Plough

Step 1

• This part is pretty easy. You need to remove the top plank and only keep the poplar bar in place.

Step 2

• What you would do is line up the pages of your book with the edge of the poplar bar. The bar acts as a guide for the chisel for the plough. Remember to keep the chisel sharp at all times.

Step 3

• The chisel will be our plough, you want to keep the flat side of the chisel against the poplar bar at all times. You will basically pull the the chisel towards you at an angle so only one corner is trimming the paper. This will prevent the chisel from pulling the paper and can causing an uneven cut. You keep pulling the chisel towards you, and with each pass the paper will be trimmed. When you are done your book with have nice even pages.

 

 

The Sewing Frame

 

Step 1

• You are going to start with just the base of the press.

Step 2

• Drill 1/4" hole in one side of the PVC coupling. You will do this for both couplings.

Step 3

• Look at the picture below, take your threaded rod, washers, nuts, wing nuts, and couplings and assemble them according to the picture.

Step 4

• Put the rods in the holes that are closest to the long edge of the press. from the understide add another washer and nut and tighten them. Make sure the holes in the couplers are facing each other.

Step 5

• Put the wood dowel into the hole on one of the couplers then slip the dowl into the hole in the other coupler. Then tighten up the wing nuts to keep it all in place.

Now the sewing frame is done. All you need to do is now is sew your book.

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Lets Talk Paper and Printing

Since I am known as the paper expert at work, I get asked all the time at my art store job, how is it that there are two papers that have the same weight but have different thicknesses.

First. Paper weight is determined by weighting 500 sheets of paper. A ream of paper is 500 sheets of paper. If a ream of paper weight 60lbs then that sheet of paper is known as 60lb paper.

Second. When the paper is weighed, it is weighed in its original parent sheet size. The paper may then be cut down into smaller sizes and sold in reams. This is why a ream of 8 1/2" by 11" copy paper does not weight 32lbs.

Third. Different papers have different parent sheet sizes. This is why two papers that have the same weight have different thicknesses. Two different reams are being weighed but the paper sizes are not the same size.

• Bond / Writing weight is 17" by 22"
• Book / Text weight is 25" by 38"
• Cover weight is 20" by 26" sometimes you see it as 26" by 40"
• Bristol 22.5" by 28.5" (while Bristol may have a weight to it, it is typically measured in ply. 1 ply, 2 ply, 3 ply, 4ply, etc.)
• Index 25.5" by 30.5"
• Newsprint is about 24" by 36"
• Art paper is normally 22" by 30". Some times you see it 30" by 44" this includes print making and watercolor paper by Rives, Arches, Magnani, Fabiano, Rising.

Another question I get asked a lot is what is the difference or the use for the different papers?

I usually answer this by what the paper's intended purpose is.

• Bond / writing paper is your typical printer paper. It is good for printing on with your home printer or writing on.
• Text / Book is what is commonly used by offset printers for the pages of a book, magazine, catalogs or etc. It is heaver, more opaque than bond paper. There is often a cover weight paper that matches.
• Cover is commonly used for things such as business cards, brochures or anything requiring a little bit heaver or stiffer paper. Cover weight normally has a matching book / text weight.
• Index is like Bristol except that it is not as stiff or thick. and it can be used for really stiff business cards, postcards and pretty much anything Bristol is used for.
• Bristol its great for covers for paperback books, cards, etc. It is a really stiff paper that gets it strength from having multiple sheets laminated together.
• Newsprint - this one is pretty self explanatory but newspapers.

Since I work part time in an Art Store I always get people asking why when they use a paper in their home ink jet printer it always comes out blurry.

Ink jet printers are basically water based printers and paper like to suck up water. So it tends to bleed and cause fuzzy edges. Some papers are meant to be used with injet printers and this includes gilcee, they have special coatings applied to them or even special stuff mixed into them to prevent injet bleeding. Now I do have a solution for people wanting to print on nontraditional media. Golden the company that makes high end acrylic paints makes a special medium that you can apply to paper to allow it to print in an ink jet printer. They also make a version that you can apply to non paper products that are non-porous such as plastics or metals.

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