Paper mounting. Pigment movement

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    • #17324
      rincondereyes
      Participant

      I have a mounted a painting and the watercolor pigment has been moved. When I mounted the paper using the ink , this has not happened. Does anyone know the reason? Is it  by the type of pigment only? Thank you¡¡

    • #17331
      罗雁 LuoYan
      Keymaster

       

      Hi, I tested before. One mounting master taught me a trick: put the painting in a plastic bag and fasten the bag. Then steam it for a while. Afterwards, mount it. This helps lock the colours on paper.

      Another reason to explain the problem is the pigments you use. If you use high grade natural pigments, the colour will not move at all. 🙂 For example, Jiang SiXu Tang´s natural colour chips work extremely well for mounting.  For example,

      Set Profesional 12 Colores (12 x 5g)

      If you want to use industrial pigments, then use paints which are specially for Chinese painting. For example, these colours,

      https://www.inkston.com/es/shops/tintas/chinese-paints-tubes-es/

      And also, you need to mount after the painting is completely dry.

       

    • #17338
      rincondereyes
      Participant

      Thank you very much !
      I use watercolor from the Van Gogh brand. Are these industrial? And with the inks in color, would not there be a problem?

    • #17361
      罗雁 LuoYan
      Keymaster

      Hello, you can check the notes on the pigments to see if they are mineral based or plant based colours. 🙂 Natural pigments functions well on Xuan papers. If they are industrial pigments, I would suggest you to try watercolors specially made for Chinese painting/ Sumi E. For example, Marie’s Chinese paints, Japanese Sakura Chinese paints, Jiang SiXu Tang’s paints are typical paints for Chinese painting/ sumi e. And some of the colours can function well on Xuan paper too but you need to test them one by one. I once tried watercolour from Holbein and found the colours ‘run away’ when the paper gets wet.

    • #17370
      tibiliu
      Participant

      You can prevent colour running like this:

      Make a gelatin and alum solution, 1% gelatin and 1% alum. You can use Dr. Oetker kooking gelatin or rabbit skin glue (artist grade). You can find alum in the drug stores. Check out Henry Li’s videos on Youtube “how to make alum/glue water for gong bi painting. So your solution will be 1g gelatin, 1g alum, 98g water. Cook it a little while in a double boiler (bain marie) until hot and clear. To be extra sure you can even use 2g gelatin, 1g alum, 97g water.

      Apply this solution with a soft brush over the colours of your painting, with pacience, element by element. You can also apply on the back side of the painting (if it’s xuan paper).

      Once it’s dry, the colours won’t run anymore durring mounting, even if they are western watercolours.

    • #17377
      rincondereyes
      Participant

      Thank you very much¡ Tibiliu

    • #17387
      tibiliu
      Participant

      You’re welcome!

      You may find alum as a solid bar or crayon used for stopping bleeding during shaving. Some people use it to replace deodorant.

      And about the glue solution, when it gets cold it becomes gel-like. You can keep it in the fridge and reheat it when you need it again. You can use the same solution as a binder to work with dry pigments for artists Chinese or western.

    • #17644
      charlesrtsua
      Participant

      The problem is you’ve used Western watercolour pigment which is not the same as Chinese pigment. Chinese pigments contain more glue and this is so it binds to the paper more and survive the traditional wet mounting process. Western watercolours are not designed to be mounting in the Chinese way and so do not have enough glue and would bleed and run if you add water or soak the paper.

      You could solve this problem by mixing in hide glue to the watercolours and using alum and glue etc to fix and stabilise the pigments but it would be better and easier to switch to using actual pigments that are meant for Chinese painting and mounting.

    • #17651
      rincondereyes
      Participant

      Thank you very much !!!

    • #19488
      Lu Kesi
      Participant

      I was also told that “old” ink, while used for special effects, can also bleed when the backing is put on. This will supposedly not happen when using freshly ground ink. My experience has been that both will occasionally bleed with no way to predict the outcome. As mentioned above, use only Chinese watercolors to avoid bleed and coat the finished work with the previously suggested alum solution if unsure. This alum solution can also be used between layers of paint to keep them separated. You could also flood a thin wash of water over your finished work to see if and what will bleed, but only if you’re not afraid of the consequences—you might come up with some happy accidents!

    • #19489
      罗雁 LuoYan
      Keymaster

      great comment dear Lu Kesi! Thanks a lot!

      Yan

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