Which Carbon Paper Should I Use?
When transferring designs to a block, there are several factors to consider: can the design be seen on the block? Will it wash off? Will the design be transferred to the print? In this project, we test two different carbon papers on six different relief blocks. We test them with three types of ink: waterbased, water washable and oil based to see which combinations work the best.
The two carbon papers we are testing are Blue Carbon Paper and Red Japanese Carbon Paper
We are testing our carbon papers on several different blocks.
From left to right:
Japanese Vinyl,
Traditional Grey Hessian Backed Lino,
Easy Carve,
Japanese Ply,
Transparent Relief Printing Block and Softcut.
Our first test is to see which carbon papers transfer onto which blocks.
Both the red and the blue carbon papers transfer well onto the ply and the grey lino.
Only the red carbon paper transfers onto the softcut, transparent block, easy carve and vinyl. The blue does not show on any of these blocks.
The next test is to see if the marks can be cleaned off. Often, especially when printing in the reduction method or proofing, we want to clean the ink off our blocks without removing our drawing. Other times, we may want to clean the drawing off our block to start again, so it’s important to know how our carbon papers will behave when cleaned.
When cleaned with water on a rag:
Softcut – the red lines smudged
Transparent Block – the red lines cleaned away
Ply – the red lines did not clean off, the blue lines did not clean off
Easy Carve – the red lines did not clean off
Lino – the red lines did not clean off, the blue lines cleaned away
Vinyl – the red lines did not clean off
When cleaned with oil on a rag:
Softcut – the red lines cleaned away
Transparent Block – the red lines cleaned away
Ply – the red lines smudged, the blue lines smudged
Easy Carve – the red lines cleaned away
Lino – the red lines did not clean off, the blue lines did not clean off
Vinyl – the red lines cleaned away
When cleaned with Zest It on a rag:
Softcut – the red lines cleaned away
Transparent Block – the red lines cleaned away
Ply – the red lines smudged, the blue lines smudged
Easy Carve – the red lines cleaned away
Lino – the red lines became paler but did not clean off, the blue lines cleaned away
Vinyl – the red lines cleaned away
It was worth noting that it was difficult to redraw on the block with carbon paper after they had been cleaned with Zest It.
Next, we want to test if the carbon lines will transfer when printed. We re-drew on all the blocks and printed with Caligo Safe Wash Inks and Hawthorn Stay Open Oil Based Inks.
Caligo Safe Wash Inks:
Softcut – no transference
Transparent Block – transference from red carbon paper (blue carbon paper did not work on block)
Ply – no transference
Easy Carve – no transference
Lino – no transference
Vinyl – no transference
Hawthorn Oil Based Stay Open Inks:
Softcut – no transference
Transparent Block – transference from red carbon paper (blue carbon paper did not work on
Ply – no transference
Easy Carve – no transference
Lino – no transference
Vinyl – a tiny amount of transference from red carbon paper
To conclude, we found that the Blue Carbon Paper only works on the traditional grey lino and ply, not on any of the other blocks. The red carbon paper works on every block. Zest-It cleans off both carbon papers off all of the blocks except red carbon paper on lino and ply and blue carbon paper on ply.
There is little transference on any of the prints apart from the red carbon paper on the transparent block.
The best combination seems to be Red Carbon Paper on grey Lino as there is no transference to prints and the marks are not removed with water or oil and are only made paler with Zest-It.
