Tag Archives: Dioxazine Purple

New Paintings

Three new paintings to post. I have been working on these for awhile, about a month I guess. There have been a couple things going on but more on that later. I will be posting about some new drawings too shortly. The next pieces will be really big again, but I wanted to get a few small ones done before I got caught up in a big project. I have sketched a whole book so far in preparation for these next large pieces and these were 3 faces caught my eye but were better suited to this smaller size. Each has fairly strong multifacial effect. Each uses 17 colors.

Left to right: 3 Teal (exteriors), 3 Manganese Blue, 3 Yellow/black (Lines), Orange/Green pair, Red/Yellow pair, 3 Dioxazine Purple, 3 Chromium Oxide Green

The color set for these paintings is:

3 major interior colors in 3 descending saturation levels: Manganese Blue, Dioxazine Purple and a Chromium Oxide Green mixture
2 pairs of minor colors: Custom orange mixture/dark Phthalo green and Napthol Red/Hansa Yellow (green mixture)
3 linear colors, descending shades of yellow oxide
3 exterior colors (one for each painting): Teal in descending saturation levels.

Anyways, here are some progress shots of the new paintings:

This is a mixture for the medium green tone. It appears to be (left to right) carbon black, phthalo green (yellow shade), chromium oxide green and a white/chromium oxide green mix (probably just poured from the light tone).

Here are the finished pieces. The images click through to the painting page with closeups.

Orange!

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There are two sets of prints here. This first set was printed on 4/15/12. The full array is up on the Prints page. This first group uses 3 shades of turquoise, in different color iterations:

04.15.12 Three Figures in Turquoise, All 6 iterations

4/15/12 All six iterations in turquoise. Each of these is a unique variation.

To get all of the variations I printed each screen twice in each color, then switched colors and repeated on the dry prints for each of the remaining screens. I started printing the lightest shade, adding more turquoise for each layer. Phthalo turquoise is one of my favorite colors. I first started using it in 2009 with Number 365 and 366.

4/15/12 Two variations with iridescent pearl. Sadly, this does not photograph well.

I did a few prints with a new color I picked up on a whim, iridescent pearl. I was curious how it would print and I am pleased to say it comes out pretty cool. It looks great both as an overlay and underneath the more transparent colors such as the blue and orange. Photographing it has proven difficult though. I have really been feeling the orange lately. Since painting Number 423 I have been thinking about colors based on how they would look next to orange.

4/15/12 This is one of my favorites from the run.

I did these the next day with some purple:

4/16/12 The purple/orange/green combination is one I will probably revisit soon.

On 4/22/12 I did more experiments with Orange. This time I mixed the pearl down with black and white for a grey color. It still maintains some of the iridescence.

04.22.12 Orange/Turquoise/Grey - three versions

04.22.12 Orange/Purple/Grey - two versions

This next

04.22.12 Orange/Purple/Turquoise - two versions

Finally, I printed this one, which I have been calling “Triple C” because is is a triple print of the 3rd screen. I have been resisting doing a multiple like this for awhile but I am pleased with the outcome.

04.22.12 Triple C

3/26/12 New Painting

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Number 423

Hard to believe it’s the end of March and this is the first painting of 2012, Number 423. I have been focused on the prints since January so I haven’t spent much time actually painting. It’s been a lot of fun but I needed to paint. I am still planning a giant painting on this roll of canvas I have.The plan has been to go very heavily multilinear on that since I will have space to put a lot of lines. This sketch was not dense enough for that size but I really liked it so I painted it at my regular size of 3′x4′.

2012_02_25-_8-00am001

Color

So first off, this is a palette switch from the last group of paintings. Notably the addition of the orange but also brown instead of yellow and a different pigment green. My last group had some orangey reds, but everything was squarely on the red end of the spectrum. This is definitely orange. I admit it was added because of the red-orange I have been using on the prints. I loved the effect when used with the purples, turquoise and green. The other change is the green is chromium oxide which has a matte finish and an earthy tone compared to the bright phthalo green. It is one of my favorite colors.

Besides the pigment changes, there has been a color pattern change as well. The previous two sets of paintings used 3-level sets for the interior space but in this painting I am using 2-levels. This painting has 5 colors in heavy and light saturation pairs, plus orange. The multilinear red/turquoise/purple/yellow/green paintings from last year (414-422) had two major interior colors and 2 minor interior colors in sets of 3 levels of saturation. Fourth levels of saturation were used for line or background. The yellow series (406-413) before that had a 5-level major color and two minors. The interior space of both groups of paintings was limited to 3 saturation levels of each color.

10 colors in light and heavy saturation pairs. At the time that I took this photo I had not yet mixed the big vat of orange.

Pairs of Blue, Turquoise, Purple

Two saturation variants of each color allow for some interesting patterns. I opted to alternate heavy/light horizontally within color and vertically across color. Here is what it looked like after I established the major color areas and began to identify the minor color clusters:

One application of each of the color pairs plus the second minor color cluster.

One Coat establishing all the color areas.

Fast forward many hours:

Many coats of paint later...

Music

On a side note I have been on a huge Afrobeat kick lately playing a lot of mid-70s Fela Kuti in the studio on repeat. Mostly “Gentleman,” “Zombie,” and “Expensive Shit.” This has been interspersed with some of my favorite Brazilian music, long-time obsession “Carlos, Erasmo” by Erasmo Carlos and “Africa Brasil” by Jorge Ben.

Negative Space Prints

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This set is building off of the negative space prints I did for “This& That” but in the larger format. Those prints were 11″x14″ and these are all closer to 18″x24″. Here is a set of three in orange and green with slightly different registrations:

03-11-12 three versions of Two Figures in Green and Orange - slightly different registrations

So far in my print experiments this year, the 2 and 3 color iterations have been the strongest. For this set I used 3 screens, two negative space iterations and one line. The two negative space screens happen to fit together really well in this set and I was able to get a lot of great variations. Slight differences in registration of the screens can have subtle but distinct effect on the look of the expression. I like how this echoes the chaotic variation in my drawings, small differences in proportion and distance of line changing how the expression manifests. Here are a few more color variations with just the negative space and a few opposite pairings:

03-11-12 Two Figures in Purple and Turquoise

03-11-12 two versions of Two Figures in Purple and Turquoise - Each of these prints has slightly different registration.

03-11-12 Two Figures in Turqoise and Orange

03-11-12 two versions of Two Figures in Turquoise and Orange - opposite versions

03-11-12 Two Figures in Raw Umber and Turquoise

03-11-12 two versions of Two Figures in Raw Umber and Turquoise - opposite versions

I mentioned above that there was a third screen with the line. Here is a split variation, the same line paired with one each of the negative screens:

03-11-12 Two Figures in Turqoise and Orange (A&B)

03-11-12 two versions of Two Figures in Turquoise and Orange (A&B)

Now for all three elements:

03-11-12 Three Figures in Green, Orange and Turquoise

03-11-12 two versions of Three Figures in Green, Orange and Turquoise

03-11-12 Three Figures in Green, Orange and Purple

03-11-12 two versions of Three Figures in Green, Orange and Purple

The color I have been referring to as “orange” in this post is a mixture of Hansa Yellow Light and Napthol Red Light. Against the turquoise it is almost electric:

Orange Paint

More prints

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I am continuing to experiment with screen printing. Now that I have the process down I am free to make more directed experiments with colors and overlays. I have found that 2 and 3 color variations work best. 4 and 5 colors seems to be too much for my current figures. Here are some of my more successful two-color variations:

Dioxazine Purple and Chromium Oxide Green

Dioxazine Purple and Turquoise (Phthalo)

Turquoise (Phthalo) and Chromium Oxide Green

Three colors:

Raw Umber, Chromium Oxide Green and Napthol Red/Hansa Yellow

The green went down first, then the brown finally the translucent red. Because the purple is so dark there is only an overlay effect from the red. Either red over green or red over purple.

Raw Umber, Chromium Oxide Green and Napthol Red/Hansa Yellow (close up)

Raw Umber, Chromium Oxide Green, Turquoise (Phthalo)

Since the turquoise went down first, there is no overlay effect at all.

Raw Umber, Chromium Oxide Green, Turquoise (Phthalo) (close up)

Chromium Oxide Green, Turquoise (Phthalo) and Yellow/Green Oxide

I used two greens on this one. The first layer was a full Chrome Oxide Green. The oxides are all pretty opaque colors. The Phthalo is very translucent, so there is an overlay effect on the second layer. The third layer is a mix of Chrome Oxide Green and Yellow Oxide which is also very opaque. This has been a favorite color mix of mine for a long time. I like that the overlay is limited to the middle layer.

Chromium Oxide Green, Turquoise (Phthalo) and Yellow/Green Oxide (close up)

I am continuing to experiment with the technique of printing. During this recent set of prints I started playing with the ratio of Golden Screen Print Medium to paint. Using more than 50% medium with the heavy body paints definitely allows more transparent layers. This does affect the fluidity of the paint mixture though and you can easily over-flood the screen with paint if you are not careful. I found that with some of the medium to paint mixtures that I did not need to do a flood stroke. Just pushing the ink through the screen on one pull was enough to get a clean print.

Corn Syrup and Dish Soap: cheaper and better line quality

I read somewhere that you can make your own drawing fluid from corn syrup and dish soap. I looked for recipes that specified how much of each but I couldn’t find anything. So I just started mixing them. Based on my limited experiments I can tell you I got best results when I used mostly corn syrup. If you add too much dish soap the fluid will be too watery and it will bubble too much. The main benefit to making your own, aside from much lower cost, is that you can control how thick it is. For the type of line work I am doing, I have found that a thicker drawing fluid produces better results.

I put a few of these up on the Prints page. I will add more soon.

New Prints for 2012

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So after the great reception I got for the Number 24 Prints in November, I resolved to make more prints in the new year. Specifically new prints, not just reprints of my older work, although I probably will do a few of those too. I originally had this plan to do crazy complex designs from a very complicated drawing, but the drawing fluid does not handle like paint and I found that the results were not optimal. So I chose to paint new designs directly onto the screens and experiment with overlays, similar to my recent multi-linear paintings. The even application of ink in the silkscreen process will allow overlays of color that I currently avoid in my paintings. When painting I usually aim to apply color in opaque layers, so that each color is fully saturated in the areas I designate. Rarely, if ever, do I allow transparent overlays. One of the things I have noticed, particularly with some of the more transparent colors I use (specifically yellows and greens) is the difference in appearance between layers, some colors not achieving full saturation until 5 or 6 layers. This was an element I hoped to explore in the prints. Specifically I wanted to do several yellow-only and green-only prints to examine the more saturated overlaying sections.

As I mentioned, the drawing fluid I used for the last run of prints was good enough for the relatively thick line of Number 24. It is the consistency of maple syrup though and does not easily make long straight lines of uniform thickness like I use in my more recent paintings. Part of the problem is that it needs to be laid on thick in order to block out the screen filler. A light single layer will not suffice and result in a completely filled in screen. After several failed experiments I ended up fashioning a makeshift squeeze marker out of an old Golden fluid bottle. It took a little practice to get used to but the results ended up looking like this:

Drawing fluid on screen

After a little trial and error, and washing out the screens I didn’t like I had 5 screens drying in my hallway.

Screens drying in the hallway

I recommend having this mess cleaned up before the spouse returns home

Then tape the corners and add the screen filler. Rinse. Dry. Finally ready to print.

I did several color combinations. First 4 layers of green. This really emphasizes the overlay effect:

4 layers of green

4 layers of green close up

Now with with 3 yellows:

3 yellows

This is definitely a more subtle overlay effect. It is nearly impossible to see the separate layers from any distance. Up close, however you can see changes in saturation at the overlay:

3 yellows close up

Here are some multi-color variations. These two both have multiple layers of yellow one above and one below the first layer of green:

Yellow, green, yellow, turquoise

Yellow, green, yellow, green

Here is one with 2 shades of green, one a full green and one a mixture of yellow and green. this is actually 1/3, one of the few where I made multiples of the same color combination:

Yellow, 2 greens

2 greens, purple

Yellow, 2 greens, purple

For the most part these were made with Hansa Yellow Light, Phthalo Green (Yellow Shade), Turquoise (Phthalo) and Dioxazine Purple.

Check the Prints page for more. Most of these are 1/1 with no direct duplicate. There are a few multiples too, but they are really only multiples in intent as each has a slightly unique registration. They are not all perfect as I am still getting used to this method and making plenty of mistakes along the way, but I am learning to be okay with that. I spent a good deal of yesterday reclaiming the screens, so the next set of prints will be all different designs.