Spent all morning fighting a wash and only realized at noon the paper was the problem
Okay so I've been blaming myself all week for these muddy skies. Like genuinely sitting here going "what is wrong with you Dani, you know how to do a wet on wet by now." Changing my water, my brush angle, my breathing (??) trying to fix it. Then this morning I switched brands of paper because the art store was out of my usual and it was flawless on the first try. The paper. It was the paper the whole time. I almost laughed out loud alone in my studio.
I think the humbling part is how quick I am to assume the failure is in me and not in the materials. Which honestly tracks with a lot of other things about me haha. But also. It means I wasted an entire week of good painting time being mad at my own hands.
Anyone else ever fought a problem for days and it turned out to be something dumb like the tooth of the paper or the humidity or whatever?
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The material decides so much more than we want to admit. I spent years in etching convinced my aquatint was failing because of my technique, my timing, the acid temperature. Turned out the plate ground from one supplier was just inconsistent. Same thing, same blame spiral.
Printmaking taught me that the tool is half the conversation and we act like it should be invisible. Which is its own kind of arrogance when you think about it. We assume mastery means the medium doesn't matter, when really mastery is knowing which paper, which plate, which ground is going to do what for you.
Also the breathing thing made me laugh. We've all tried fixing the wrong variable.
Okay yes, the "mastery means the medium doesn't matter" thing is SO real and I think we're lowkey taught it in art school? Like there's this idea that a real painter could work on anything, and so when the paper betrays you it's automatically a skill gap. Which is such a lie. Mastery is knowing exactly which tool to reach for and when, that's not a cop out that's the actual craft.
Also the aquatint thing is making me want to ask you a million questions because I did one etching class in college and I was SO bad at it, I have so much respect for people who stick with it. The acid temps alone?? I could never. Did you ever figure out a consistent supplier or do you just test every batch now??