Rose City Print Arts

The ink being milled down to a finer consistency.

A worker taking a draw down of the transparency and consistency of the ink.

Colors colors colors!

A shot of the Ex-toothpaste packaging device that now packages Gamblin's fine line of paints. 

The mixing process for titanium white. Note the ventilation- some heavy metal pigments are used in their inks and this ventilation ensures safety for the factory employees. 

Quality control station. Regular checks are done frequently to ensure their ink and paints are always going to have the highest quality.

Talk about a lot of ink! There are hundreds of these bins across several racks in the warehouse. 

I recently stumbled on a posting on the printmaking subreddit of reddit.com where someone posted prints they had done calling them "Inkjet Monotypes". This term intrigued me a lot so I decided to ask what the heck that was, and how it was achieved! 

Here is the original image that was posted. It has a really cool effect! 

I asked the poster, u/radicallymodest how this effect was achieved and this is what they said:

"I want to start by saying I've never been a printmaker in the traditional sense of the word. I am a photographer, digital artist and designer who "prints things from the printer." This process gives me so much gratification because no matter how many times I might recreate the exact same steps I get a distinctly different end product. Each is unique, and for me that is so cool.

I started by printing onto the back side of HP Premium Photo Paper and then pressing another sheet of it down onto the still-wet print to create a final unique print. (It does leave some of the ink behind, and what's left is really fascinating in its own right.) The instant dry quality of the transfer is amazing. I am using an HP Deskjet 9650. The different combinations of quality settings (fast draft up to highest quality photo print) and the paper types (normal, photo, transparency) each create different effects in the finished print. I can't say this won't ruin your printer. Mine has held up seemingly fine through a couple hundred prints so far. I'm getting ready to experiment with an Epson. I have also been experimenting with other paper types that resist inkjet ink (like a clear plastic sheet protectors, for instance) instead of the back side of photo paper. It's been a lot of fun."

Here are several variations of the same print, with different printer settings.

I just love that people are constantly experimenting and finding out new ways of making prints every day! Even people without formal printmaking experience are taking risks and challenging the definition of "print". 

We're live with Rose City Print Arts Collective blog! Stay tuned for some amazing art coming from Portland artists. Here is our new logo, hot off the presses!