Everything you Need to Know about Printmaking Inks for Hand Printing
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Welcome to the garden studio. This week I'm filling you in on all the considerations for choosing printing ink for hand printing at home.
I'm going through the considerations you'll need to make, road test 3 inks and show you the results and let you in on my non-toxic clean up method for oil based printmaking ink.
If you'd like monthly inspiration on your printmaking journey, plus my free guide, 'How To Be A Rebel Printmaker: 5 Rules You Need to Break to Make Your Best Work on Paper' join my list here:
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There are also a selection of self-paced video courses available from my website guiding you through hand printing at home:
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Excellent stuff, cheers Ruth 🤟
Good comparison of inks! I have all 3 types but I have a ton of oil paint so I'm starting with that. Recently bought a tube of Daler Rowney's Oil-based Print Medium that you add to oil paint to make it into printmaking ink, it also let's you make very transparent overlaying 'veils' of colour, have you ever tried this product? I've just bought one so my experimentation has only just begun :). Love your little home studio!
I've tried one medium (can't remember if it's Daler Rowney) though I found it toned down the colours slightly. I may try your suggestion though- things are always changing and getting better.
Thanks Ruth. I’m always fired up after one of your videos, I really enjoyed both of your video courses. 😀👍🏼I have just a couple of questions. What surface are you rolling onto, is it a plastic mat or similar? The other question is about collaging the papers, if they are oil based inks I’m assuming acrylic medium would not work to bond the papers, is there an alternative? Thank you 🙏
Hi, the surface I use is a large piece of plastic- perspex. Most plastics will do, or indeed ceramics (large tile etc).
I find that because the oil paint surface is only on one side (and I apply my glue to the non-printed side) it usually bonds ok. Sometimes I have a little difficulty when layering up several collage pieces.
For my work on paper, I actually usually use rice glue (sometimes called nori paste) to collage with. I get mine from www.intaglioprintmaker.com. I use acrylic medium my mixed media boards and sometimes PVA.
Hi Ruth- what is the hard surface that you work on in the video?
Hi Karen, It's actually a large piece of plastic -perspex, that I got from B&Q (large hardware store). You could equally use most plastics or ceramics though (, plastic place mat, glass from a picture frame, large smooth ceramic tile etc)
Thanks for this simple, useful information. I'm wondering, though, what do you do with your oily clean-up rags?
They go in the bin! Though I feel that they are pretty biodegradable as they are essentially fabric, oil and pigment, so I'm not adding to anything bad in the ocean!
@@printingathomewithruthande1868 Yes, it doesn't sound toxic, but I was thinking about combustibility. Do you have a metal bin? I want to go back to oils, and I'm curious about how others handle the rags. Vegetable oil sure is better than turpentine, though!
@@rosemarystarace6511 yes, vegetable oil is combustible
Hi Ruth. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Do you think it's possible to use oil paints called Artisan Water by Winsor & Newton? They offer much bigger choice of colors compared to anything explicitly marketed for printmaking, at least where I live.
Thank you for the info. Is using oil on non oil paper archival? How should I protect the tissue from the oil?
I don't protect the paper from oil, so to speak, though you can buy 'buffered tissue' which has a coating on it (though the ink doesn't sink in as well on that). I find that I'm rolling the ink out so thinly that it doesn't really make a difference to the paper. Eventually, of course, it probably will break down somewhat, but the pieces I made 20 years ago are still going strong.