CHAPTER FOUR

PAPERS AND INK

 

 

 

PAPER'S color, weight, surface texture and permanence all affect the quality of the finished print. Given the innumerable types of machine-made and handmade paper available, it is not an easy task to select one. Your choice of paper will largely depend on whether you are going to print your block by hand or on a printing press.

The best papers for burnishing prints by hand are thin, strong, soft and smooth. They should also be lightly sized. “Sizing” refers to the binder that is added to a paper to make it less or more absorbent. An example of unsized paper is toilet paper, which breaks apart almost instantly in water. You can tell how much sizing is in a paper by how waterproof it is. Take a sheet of paper and dampen a corner with a sponge lightly soaked in water. If the water soaks into the paper quickly, the paper is lightly sized; if it takes some time to soak in, the paper is moderately sized. With too little sizing, the strength of the paper and its resistance to ink bleeding and show-through are compromised. A large amount of sizing produces an almost waterproof paper. This may be useful for printing fine details but detrimental if you plan to use inks that dry by absorption or if you intend to incorporate some ink bleeding into your design.

If you are printing on a press, you have more options. The press can print images on thicker papers and papers with a slight texture. Avoid such papers if you are burnishing prints by hand unless you want the texture of the paper surface to show in the final print.

Because high quality paper is expensive, most artists proof their images on cheap paper before printing them on the good stuff. Commercially available newsprint or bond paper is suitable for proofing. However, if you are looking for a better-quality proofing paper, art supply stores sell rolls of machine-made mulberry paper made in Asia. This paper, which is commonly used for brushwork, is also called shodo practice paper, sumi, kami calligraphy paper, India paper and rice paper. Now the confusing part: some art supply stores sell “India paper” or “China paper” that is not mulberry paper. These terms are left over from 19th-century European printmakers who prefaced anything from Asia with the words “India,” “China” or “rice.” Rather than mulberry paper, you may end up buying a thick manila paper or a mingeishi craft paper. However, many artists have successfully used these papers as proofing paper, so whether the paper you buy contains mulberry or not is unimportant.

 

The point of a proof paper is to give you some idea of what your image will look like when it’s printed on your good paper. Don’t spend a lot of money on proof paper, but look for something that has similar characteristics to the image paper you plan to use.