Digital BW, The Print

Hello Steve,

I'm copying my response to
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com just in case someone else
may find this beneficial.

Before sharing with you my latest technique which is unbelievably
simple and yet so far has yield 100% perfect result I'd like to talk a
bit about the reason why I feel I must coat all papers that are prone
to flaking. Note that this method may not work on glossy paper due the
fact that the brayer which I use will introduce textures into a
surface which is supposed to be smooth.

Despite the fact that I'm very concientious about flake removal prior
to printing, some flaking will inevitably occur after printing as some
other folks in the forum had observed. Maybe somewhere between the
place where you let your print dry to the print framing table, or
worse yet at your customer's home where the print is unfurled.

I did a little test in which I printed a large block of gray on the
Hawk Mountain Merlin which I had prepared the surface using the
rolling technique, tapping on the back of the paper, brushing the
surface, sprayed a fine mist of plain water using an airbrush, let it
dry and roll, brush, tap again. Then printed the large gray block. Let
it dry. And lo and behold I found tiny white flakes again after I
flexed the print a couple times. The only difference is that these are
very very small flakes as compared to those I got without surface
preparation. The large block of gray reveals the flakes better than a
regular image.

Now about my coating technique:

1. a Speedball (TM) foam brayer which I bought at a local Ultrecht Art
Supply store. It's best to wash this brayer in plain water to remove
any foam particles left by the manufacturing process.

2. Liquitex acrylic gloss medium and varnish. I haven't worked out an
exact lidution percentage but probably somewhere between 10-15%
distilled water added to the medium. If applied full strengh without
dilution you'll get a pretty interesting surface texture, however if
diluted as suggested the paper's own texture will be more prominent
which is probably more preferable.

Pour a small amount of diluted medium on a flat tupperware container
and work the brayer as you would a house paint roller. Then freely
roll the brayer back and forth over the print. I tend to roll in one
direction and then another until the whole print is evenly covered.
For those that have played with coating rods you'd find that this
yields a much more predictable and smooth result. Remove the print
from the baseboard and let it dry for about ... 5 minutes then apply a
second coat, or don't do the second coat yet but perform 3) instead.
  
3. Liquitex acrylic matte medium. Mix a small amount of this liquid to
the dilution in 2) and store in a separate bottle. This final coat is
to reduce the glossiness resulting from 2) above. Apply this coat
using the same brayer technique.

At this point I've almost decided that I don't need 3) at all. The
sheen after two coats of 2) is very pleasing and I think if I dilute
2) even further I may get even less sheen. Or dilute 2) a little less
and apply just one coat. It's unbelievable that even after one coat I
got smoother result then before when I was using either an airbrush or
the coating rod. And this brayer method is also very forgiving. So far
I have yet to get a reject.

Cleaning up after the coating process is also very simple because the
coating liquid is water based. I hope you find this information
useful.

--nick




--- Susspeople@... wrote:

> Nick
> I have been away from the group for a while. I started using rods
> and 
> Hydrocoat over a year ago, but became quickly frustrated as probably
> only 1 in 10 
> came our perfectly without streaks. What are you using now. A paint
> bruch and 
> then an air gun??? What medium do you use? 
> Thanks, STEVE
>