Hi everyone, Jen Perena here!
I’ve been working hard on my coating process and experimenting with different papers, and I think I am making some progress!
Over the Labor Day weekend, I bought some new paper in large sheets (Stonehenge print-makers paper, in two tones, cool white and warm white), cut it all up, and began making prints with it.
I also made some prints with the Fabriano watercolor paper I had been using, but which I have been having varying success with. Here are samples of all three papers:
Below is a close up of the watercolor paper (cold press, 90#) that shows the ‘tooth’ or surface texture, which I really love; this paper is also great for the continued processing I plan to do where I apply watercolor over the top of the finished image:
And here is a close up to really compare the color of the print maker papers. I have used Stonehenge white paper before, but had forgotten how very smooth it is. Not sure I like it, but I am making prints anyway:
I made 4 prints of one image with the different papers for comparison. Don’t pay too much attention to the actual tonal range of the prints; I think the selenium became exhausted so the color shift I was expecting didn’t happen…but these were all 6 min exposures:
It’s amazing how different they all came out….BUT the good news is that my coating technique was better, and the overall images show less streakiness/brush strokes in the images! I still have some work to do to make a print of this image that’s good enough for my show, but that’s why they call it a process!