Watching Paint Dry (The Wrong Way)

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Yesterday was an experiment day. I had my first go at tinting paper. I had a longish conversation over Facebook with my friend Mark Calderwood, who has achieved truly wonderful effects with paper tinting. I also read through some books I had and looked up various things online. Although you have to be careful with that last one. Anyone can publish anything, and it's vital to sort the rubbish from the good stuff. I also looked at what Cennino Cennini had to say on the matter. I ignored his recipes (lead everywhere. How that man lived to 70 I do not know) but greatly enjoyed reading about his method. That's going on the experiment list too (minus the lead). I also thought long and hard. In the end, rightly or wrongly I settled on the following:

Remember that lovely paper I just happened to find in a folder? That's the paper I'm using. First up I securely taped a sheet to a board. I think the paper has been subject to moisture at some point. It is a little buckled and on one piece (or so I thought) there was some spotting (I set that sheet aside). But despite the buckling I laid the paper as flat as I could.

Next was to wet it down. Already the paper started to buckle more.

Wet and doing what it wants.

I diluted some yellow ochre water colour and then quickly applied it with a wide brush. First left to right, then right to left, then top to bottom. Then I turned the page upside down and went top to bottom again (why not make gravity my friend?).

Tinting done.

 Interestingly, and somewhat distressingly, once the tinting was done and it was starting to soak in, spotting appeared in one corner, identical to the damaged sheet. I went and checked the others and there are three more with the same problem. I have to hold them up to the light to see, but it's definitely there. Those sections will be trimmed off. Fortunately the damage is very localised so I won't lose much from each sheet.

Spotting in top right corner has appeared.

My friend Mark recommended putting the sheet in the bath to even out the colour and make it more subtle, but I lack his courage. In the meantime I stretched the paper again, covered it with felt and a sheet of blotting paper and another board and weighted it down with all the books from one of my art book shelves (those things are heavy) and left it overnight. Mark suggested letting it dry fully and then weighting it and I'll try that next time (with the bath thing).

This is the result:

Some streakiness, some corner wrinkling, but not bad

The colour had become a lot less intense, although that could be because of the blotting paper and felt as well as the effects of drying.

I trimmed off the wrinkliest edge, which also, luckily, corresponded with the worst of the spotting. There is still some more spotting to cut off, but I'll do that when I cut the paper to the sizes I need.

What I do need to do is purchase some plywood specifically for tinting and stretching. The top board wasn't quite the same size and you can see the line of the edge along the top of the paper, even with the felt in between. The surface texture isn't damaged and the flat part is really very flat. I'm wondering if I should re-wet and restretch to remove the corner wrinkles.

And yes, it's streaky. Next time I will definitely follow Mark's advice to the letter. He gets great results. But the streakiness will actually suit what I am planning, I think. Visually active.

And now to wrestle with the Golden Mean.

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