Re: two questions about watercolor paper

Hi Charles,
In answer to your first question, I check both front and back and never
print on the bumpier side myself, just because paper, even hot pressed, is
bumpy enough for me. I have noticed the major difference between Platine,
front and back, and it was hilarious because I recommended this paper to one
of my students who is doing VDB and when critique came around, he had
printed these little teeny VDB's (2.5x4 or so) on the bumpy back side and
they really needed to be printed on the front smoother side, so size of
finished print is definitely a factor with texture.

Texture is also a matter of preference: my mentor, Sam Wang, loves soft
press Fabriano. I can't stand it because the regular wovenlike texture
looks like a banded computer negative to me, whereas to some people it looks
like grasscloth. It coats beautifully, though, and he makes gorgeous gums
(SAM, I have your two prints hanging in my entryway so everyone who comes to
my house sees them! I hung alongside a lowly little mordancage of my own
for company).

In answer to your second question, i would say it depends on if you have a
printmaking background or not :) Printmakers usually are very consistent in
their way of orienting and labeling, etc., their prints. Alt process
people, your guess is as good as any other. I personally bought a deckle
ruler, and if my edges were to show I would tear the paper equally on all 4
sides while wet with the deckle ruler (or a plain ruler, and you can run a
line of water down alongside the ruler) to get even edges that are not
sharply cut but torn. Of course, my edges are usually behind mats so it
doesn't much matter. But there are others, I'm sure, that don't mind one
edge having a deckle and the others being sharp.

My morning 2 cents after an 80 hour week...
Chris

     I know that some watercolor papers are made with different surfaces
on each side. I can tell by feel that Arches Palatine is smoother on
the front than the back. But most of the papers I hold seem to be the
same on both sides--Arches HP watercolor and Canson CP are the two I use
most often. Are the sides really the same or should I start paying
attention to which side I coat?
     Also, When I cut a sheet (usually 22 x 30) with two deckle edges
into four pieces 11 x 14, should I print with the deckle edge always
oriented the same way? I realize that I have landscape prints with the
edge on the top and others with the edge on the bottom. Likewise, on
portrait orientation, sometimes it is right, sometimes left--I just have
not taken care to be consistent.
     Thanks, Charles
Received on Fri Oct 21 07:58:15 2005