It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the Virtues Project.
Mid-August I reviewed the status of the project and that realized that I had the about 12 pieces of the project to the stage where I could start adding ink layers. I prepped and tested the ink washes and set the selected pictures up for a mass inking. Immediately I knew something was VERY wrong.
I have never had any issues previously in regard to the watercolor paper that I use (I have in the past used incredibly OLD pieces of watercolor paper for the I Ching Project without an issues) … but it appears that perhaps August was NOT the time to add ink washes to the pictures as, I fear, the summer humidity affected the paper… and definitely not in a good way:
In all, six pictures were affected and now will need to be re-done. The good news is the designs have already been completed, it is now just a matter of re-creating them.
I also will need to re-do the diptych: Creativity and Determination as the ink wash dried a LOT darker than the tests, leaving the design lost in the wash:
In all, nine pictures from the Virtues Project will need to be re-done. Some due to the ink wash debacle and some due to design issues. I will admit to spending some time sulking and mourning the time that I have lost of this project, but I am looking at this all as a learning experience and will move on.
I have started a new diptych: Authenticity and Caring and, so far, like the direction that it is going in:
EDIT: 14 September 2022: I am beginning to suspect the issue with the paper may not be humidity after all. I found some reviews online about the paper I have been using and there were several warnings about the paper not being able to handle wet-on-wet work, leaving the ink or watercolors with a “granulated” look – exactly what I have been experiencing, and overall paper breakdown if the paper is sized. Perhaps the reason I haven’t really noticed it recently is because I haven’t used ink washes in my work for a couple of years. Regardless of what the issue is, the paper should still be usable as long as I am careful with the amount of ink/water that is used for the final product.
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