Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates[1] - Part VIPrints on PaperMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
Just as a reminder, intaglio prints can be created using solarplates. Here UV light only penetrates the clear area of the transparency and hardens the polymer, whereas areas beneath the opaque lines of the drawing remains soluble and so can be removed. For your convenience I have listed other posts in this series:
Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates - Part I
Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates - Part II
Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates - Part III
Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates - Part IV
Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates - Part V
Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates[1] - Part VI

Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates[1] - Part VI

Creator: Yvonne Boag.
Title: Nowhere Road (1998).
Print: Double exposure.
Size: 12 x 16.75 in (30.5 x 42.5 cm).
Comment [1]: Yvonne Boag created two drawings on semi-matte drafting film with lithographic crayons and graphite pencils. The two films were partially overlaid and taped together, then exposed in a vacuum frame using the double exposure technique. Inked a la poupée, this print shows the fine marks and textures that the double exposure technique can preserve.
Courtesy: Comtempory Access Gallery (Australia).

Creator: Dan Welden.
Title: Sheep Track (1997).
Print: Intaglio Print.
Size: 9 x 6.75 in (23 x 17 cm).
Comment [1]: The delicate pencil-like quality of this print was achieved with three exposures. In the first exposure, Dan Weldon "flash" exposed the plate without any transparency for a few seconds. In the second exposure he applied the aquatint screen for one minute and forty-five seconds, and for the third exposure he exposed his drawing on grained glass for a further one minute and firty-five seconds. All exposures were performed in the sun.

Creator: Beth Rundquist.
Title: Untitled (1997).
Print: Intaglio Print.
Size: 11 x 7.55 in (28 x 19 cm).
Comment [1]: Beth Rundquist worked directly on the plate with etching ink and processed the plate using the double exposure technique to create a painterly effect.

Creator: Ford Robbins.
Title: Untitled (1998).
Print: Intaglio Print.
Size: 11 x 15 in (28 x 38 cm).
Comment [1]: This image began as a very light laser transparency and using equal times for the double exposure technique gave poor results. By increasing the screen time, 1 minute 45 seconds, relative to the positive transparency time, 10 seconds, Ford Robbins achieved strong blacks in the final print.

Creator: Rita Dibert.
Title: Forbidden Fruits (1999).
Print: Photopolymer gravure print.
Size: 16 x 12 in (40.7 x 30.5 cm).
Comment [1]: This is a variation of working directly on the plate. Rita Dibert has combined direct and indirect methods. First she exposed the entire plate to the acquatint screen, then arranged her three continuous tone positives on the plate and painted around the edges of the transparencies. The plate was exposed again.

Creator: Terry Elkins.
Title: Shipwreck (1999).
Print: Single exposure intaglio print.
Size: 14.75 x 17 in (37.5 x 43 cm).
Comment [1]: Drawn with soft pencils on grained glass.

Creator: Eric Fischl.
Title: Woman with Blouse (1999).
Print: Single exposure intaglio print.
Size: 7.75 x 5.75 in (19.7 x 14.5 cm).
Comment [1]: Created with ink on acetate, the transparency was exposed once, developing areas of open bite. When inked and printed, the open bite added to the expressive quality of the print.

Reference:
[1] D.Welden and P. Muir, Printmaking in the Sun, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York (1997).

White Pigments - Part II [1]Art ResourceMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
This is the forty-nineth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II

There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.

To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.

If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g. click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.

The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!

White Pigments - Part II [1]
Zinc White
Zinc White a term peculiar to the artists' material trade, where it is intended to describe Zinc Oxide of the highest degree of purity.

Zinc White.

The manufacture and sale of artists' colors is an significant branch of the color industry, and other white pigments, such as lithophone, contain zinc, and in the past, because of the disorganized system of nomenclature, were frequently sold as Zinc White. The best grades of domestic dry Zinc Oxide are sold under the trade name of Florence French Process Zinc Oxides. There are three varieties, all of which are more than 99% pure, and any one of which may be identified as such, as the differences between them are not great.

Zinc Oxide.

White Seal is the finest-grained and fluffiest; Green Seal is just white, but denser and less bulky; Red Seal is slightly inferior in whiteness and fineness of grain to the others. A grade of still higher chemical purity is also available under the name of B.P. Zinc Oxide, but this is made for pharmaceutical preparations and so has inferior paint pigment's or physical properties. White Seal is generally best suited for artists' paints.

Green Seal (Zinc Oxide).

Zinc White, as a paint, is free from the two defects of Flake White. It is not poisonous, and since Zinc Sulphide is white, any action that sulphur fumes might have on Zinc Oxide in a painting, will not alter its color. Flake White in oil is adequately white, as is evidenced by its brilliant effects on many old paintings, when they are in good, clean condition, but Zinc is still whiter. If Flake White is called Milk White, then Zinc could be called Snow-White. In oil, it has a harsher, colder or bluer effect, and is very much less opaque. It is employed in oil only where its lack of great opacity is either desirable or of no detriment; if a more opaque white is required, Flake White or a mixture of 50% titanium with Zinc White is used.

Flake White.

Zinc White is a reactive pigment oil (see a future post in this series). It unites, but not in the same way, as Flake White does. It tends to make brittle, hard films in comparison with tough, flexible films of White Lead. Its film has none of the desirable paint qualities described under the term, 'Flake White.' It brushes out poorly, and it is an exceptionally bad drier. Its particle structure is rather finer than that of the average pigment. Poppy oil films are definitely less permanent with Zinc than with Flake White.

Zinc White in Powders and in Linseed Oil (as viewed under a microscope).

Under severe weathering conditions, such as those to which an outside painted house are subjected (and which may be taken, in a measure, as accelerated or exaggerated indications of the conditions an artistic painting may undergo over a long period of years), White Lead films decay by becoming soft and powdery, whereas in the case of Zinc films, they become brittle, and cracking and flaking are evident; in the average climate, mixtures of the two, containing not more than 60% of either, are more resistant to decay than is Zinc or Lead alone. An addition of 10% of Blanc Fixe, increases durability of such outdoor paints, evidently by reinforcing the structural strength of the film.

Signs of a worn-out house paint of Zinc White.

Although Zinc Oxide is a very slow drier in linseed oil, and remains rather soft and flexible for some time, the oxidation of the oil is merely retarded; the drying action will continue until the film has reached its characteristic hard brittle condition. Hence, Zinc Oxide, is not as good as Flake White or Cremnitz White for use in underpaintings; it is liable to be the cause of cracking, on account of shrinkage in volume, accompanying the slow drying of the film. The danger is increased by its finely divided particle size, and it is more likely to take place when poppy oil is used. In general, Zinc White, especially when ground in poppy oil, may be considered of greatest value as a top coat, or in simple, direct, one-sitting painting.

Study of the impact of different levels of zinc on the yellowing of Titanium and Lead Whites after 2.5 years of indoor aging.

In all aqueous medium, Zinc White is free from defects and so gives very good results. It has long been used as a water color under the name of Chinese White, and when thus employed, its opacity is usually satisfactory. Where it has not sufficient hiding power, as in work done for photographic reproduction, titanium should be subsituted for it.

Lithopone
Lithopone is used for interior wall paints, in enormous quantities, but despite its modern improvements made in its properties, it is universally condemned as an artists' white. In oil paints it is considerably inferior in color and color stability to Zinc Oxide. However, it has good opacity, and its structural or film-forming properties are excellent; therefore, it is generally considered acceptable for use in grounds, either in water or in oil mixtures. Its fineness of grain may cause trouble when used with poppy oil. Lithopone has a structural advantage over Zinc Oxide in oil grounds and underpaintings, namely because its films tend to dry more completely and thoroughly within a comparatively short timeframe, and moreover, to be less brittle.

Lithopone, C.I. Pigment White 5, is a mixture of inorganic compounds, widely used as a white pigment powder. It is composed of a mixture of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide. These insoluble compounds blend well with organic compounds, and confer opacity.

Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).