Low-Tech CMYK

 

8/8/21 the view from our upstairs deck

When I want to print photos to share with friends or to put in my journal, I use a Canon Selphy printer. Unlike my color inkjet printer, which sprays the paper with ink, the Selphy’s dye-sublimation process uses heat to transfer the ink onto special paper. The paper passes through the printer four times, once for each of the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) ink colors, and the paper is visible with each pass. I can see the image developing in a fascinating way, each layer of ink applied over the previous ones.

I think of this printing process whenever I sketch with the CMYK primary triad that I have been obsessed with lately. Using colored pencils instead of dye or paint, I don’t blend the colors completely, so my sketches seem to shimmer with a strange vibrancy. The transparent hues are glazed, and the individual colors are visible. It reminds me of promotional brochures and advertisements back in the day when an image’s printing plates were poorly registered, and you could see the ink colors showing around the blurry edges.

(Incidentally, Field Notes Brand tried to emulate this type of blurry, off-register printing to give their America the Beautiful notebooks an authentic, old-school look. Their printer with modern equipment had conniptions trying to accomplish this with modern technology that eliminates such messiness!)

This sketch was made with Staedtler Karat Aquarell water-soluble pencils, which I hadn’t used in a while. With a thin and hard core, it is useful for details and fine work, but not my favorite for my usual urban sketching methods. One thing I do like about them, though, is that the hues stay true to their dry state after water is applied. Some watercolor pencils change significantly in hue or intensity after activating with water.