Having made the print plate I’m in a bit of a quandary about how to print it. Monochrome seems pretty boring but could also be effective if I can work the tones well. If I want to try this I think it would be better to make it one of the final run because I’ll have to use something quite dynamic and rich to get a decent effect and it may not clean off properly if I later decide to go the route of multiple, more subtle, colours.
So I lined up my oil inks and started having a play. I should do this more often as it’s very satisfying seeing new colours emerge. All mixes contained around 35-40% extender and were applied to general visual art cartridge paper with a spatula, hence the slightly uneven finish.
Top left to right: 1: Hansa yellow with a tiny touch of purple (made from quinacridone red & grey + ultramarine blue & grey). 2: Hansa yellow with more purple mix added. 3: Hansa yellow with grey.
Bottom left to right: The middle sample from the top row (sample 2: Hansa yellow with purple) was combined with a mix of pthalo green & quinacridone red (pre-combined into a dark green). Each of the three bottom row samples had progressively more of the pthalo and red mix added to deepen the hue.
Top left to right: 1: Chrome yellow and grey (A). 2: Scarlet red and grey (B). 3: Sample 1 overlaid on sample 2.
Bottom left to right: 1: Quinacridone red and grey. 2: Ultramarine blue and grey. 3: A mix of the previous 2 samples (it looks more purple in real life).
Left to right: 1: Neutral grey. 2: Sepia and grey. 3: Previous sample plus a pre-combined mix of chrome yellow & grey (A).
Top left to right: A combination of (A) & (B) from the second colour set with progressively more (A) being added (finally worked out how to get the russet reds I love so much).
Bottom left to right: 1: Pthalo green and grey. 2: Pthalo green and quinacridone red. 3: Pthalo green with much more quinacridone red (just got to love these!!).
Several hours were whiled away as I mixed and played with the various combinations. Now I have to consider how to incorporate some of these new variations into my collagraph plate.
Tactual Textiles by Claire 
Great set of colours. Will you be printing on white paper?
Trying a variety but nothing with too much colour. I’ve used some of my ‘natural’ coloured Elephant dung paper and some of the slightly yellowish Kozo (which never photographs propertly).