Colour tests and Sizing tests

 Just before the lock-down was announced due to COVID-19 in March, I did a few essential errands like fish food, hair cut, dentist, and new paper and paints. In the test, I was using a limited palette, just 4 paints, to make all the colours. Starting on the left is PR122 a bright rose red, then mixed with PY154 yellow at the top to create oranges and pinkish colours. Then PG36 on the top right which is phthalo green yellow shade, mixed with PB15 phthalo blue on the bottom which is close to cyan. The blue plus magenta gave the purples. The mixes looked a little flat, so in the middle I placed some stronger mixes to compare. After a field test in Benny Park, I gave up on the idea of using a limited palette like this.

 

As we sat around during lock-down, I pored over the Handprint web site by MacEvoy, and found it interesting that paper had a slightly fatty chemical added called sizing that prevents the paint from moving too much once it is on the paper. In contrast, rice paper has no sizing, and paint will diffuse all over it making it hard to produce detail. By wetting and rubbing the paper with a lint free rag, you can remove some of the sizing. In the example, I wetted and scrubbed the paper different number of times from zero (no wetting on the left), to intense (3 cycles, on the right). Then I let it all dry, and applied test strips of paint, including the shimmering silver paint from Daniel Smith company. As a result- the paint looked exactly the same no matter what. It was good to know this, since I always pre-soak my paper before using it to paint, now I know the sizing is still on it even with intense scrubbing.