Pictures for the Akua VS Graphic battle

Here we are as promised. On the left you can see we have the carbon black Akua water based ink used on a very simple Ktype Collagraph. On the right I used bone black from Graphic Chemical. I took this picture of them side by side in the same frame so that it would be clear that the left isn't out of focus, the ink is doing that fuzzy thing all on it's own. It has a certain appeal, I'll admit, but maybe in a different application.

Here on the right I printed Ktypes with far more relief details for the ink to respond to. I feel the result is not surprising after the above out come. It does make me think that the Akua ink is more about color than depth and maybe would be better when used in full color prints. Now that I think of it, the adverts were all about multi colored prints that looked a bit silk screen like (ref. Dick Blick).

What can't an artist live without?

Okay, here we are in Sliced Bread Studios. What is Greg doing? Here are a few clues : It's early morning, he's holding a power tool called a dremel and he's using it on something he's not gonna use for himself. You get three guesses and the first two don't count!

Yep, this is how artists open a can of coffee.

Akua Water-based Ink by Rostow & Jung: First Attempts

Gray? Why is My Carbon Black Printers Ink GRAY?

I feel artists are the best at reusing/repurposing wasted materials while simultaneously creating toxic waste products. Just the tiny amount of mineral spirits I use to clean up my etching ink is environmentally unfriendly. Yet, we use every glass jar, every emptied coffee tin and any expired phone book/magazine/newspaper we get our hands on. For a while I thought that was enough of a trade off and I didn’t feel too guilty about the sparing use of solvents and the scant bits of oil based ink I tossed in the trash.
Then I found Akua Water Based Ink in a catalog. A good range of colors and mediums made for intaglio and monoprinting. I ordered them up and got excited.
I love that this stuff takes forever to dry. I’m not being snide, it’s easy to clean and monoprinters will have plenty of time to do their thing before actually printing. It wipes fast on copper plates, so fast you wouldn’t even believe it. It does in fact wash up with soap and water just as advertised.
Down side, I simply can’t get over that this stuff looks and smells like children’s finger paint. After using Charbonel and Faust and Graphic Chemical, the loose consistency of Akua is a turn off. The softness of the ink made a mess of my high relief collographs, but I have yet to test it on more traditional collograph plates. Also, perhaps carbon black always turns into a watery blue gray plate tone because I have always used vine, bone and pitch, but…yuck! The umber is the same consistency and blending the different colors is predictably smooth, but the plate tone is also very cool.
I will upload pictures for comparisons sake and test the ink on my “K Type” prints and a copper plate with heavy aquatinting.

In summation; Easy clean, no annoying dry out issues, wipes fast off glass and metal, and loves Mommy Nature. Carbon black leans toward gray, can I get some vine out here?
Ready, set, print!