Color Lithography

In the last month I have finally pulled a colored print ( just in time before the studio closed for the summer holidays.)

It turns out that the process of substituting colored ink for the black proofing ink is quite simple. Because the color ink is much looser and uses a hard rubber roller rather than a spongy rubber or leather roller (my studio uses rubber), rolling up the stone only takes one or two passes. Since I don’t have to go back and forth between the slab of ink and the stone for each print, it takes only half the time.

The color inks are also more transparent. The lighter an ink the less contrast there is in the image. When I printed this light blue background for instance I realized that I lost depth and detail because it is harder for the eye to detect variation when the ink is only slightly darker than the color of the page. Like in screen print, a color lithograph seems to need more layers to create a sense of depth, particularly if the colors are mostly light. I am considering adding a darker blue purple or deep maroon plate to this print  to add depth and detail. I originally planned for the print to be black and sepia as in the original conte crayon  drawing but I wanted to experiment more with what color could do.