I'm working on a set of line drawings of an historic building in AutoCad with the ultimate purpose of being sold to visitors. Right now they are simply black and white lines, but we are thinking of adding color either digitally or after plotting. If we color it after plotting, the historic building's board was hoping to do it with watercolor paints.
I don't really know the best paper for high quality line drawings, so I am looking for the perfect plotter paper that will get me super-thin, super-crisp black lines, and/or paper that will plot with high quality lines and allow us to render the color after plotting, whether by watercolor, colored pencils, etc.
If you're plotting on an Inkjet Plotter (HP DesignJet or similar), Mylar is definately the way to go for picture-perfect lines and colors straight from the plotter. As far as hand-rendering later goes, you can experiment with plotting on Natural Trace or Vellum. I'm not sure how these would work with watercolor, but they will give an excellent surface for colored pencils or Prismacolors.
Thanks, mylar sounds like a good idea for our line drawings, I've plotted on it before but my plot was all images so I didn't know how well the lines would come out. I've never heard of stonehenge paper, but it sounds like exactly what we're looking for.
Be careful water coloring on a print from an ink jet, a lot of times that ink is water soluble and when you apply your paint its going to bleed black ink into your color and make them look all muddy. Not really sure how to get around this, you might be able to print it really light, paint it and then re-print it. But that sounds like a nightmare, I’m curious to see if anyone has any suggestions for how to combine watercolor and plotter ink so they won’t run together.
kanu, i watercolor all the time on prints from my epson and have never had a problem with the ink running. perhaps if the paper was less toothy it might not work as well or the ink in your printer may just be a different composition? i have actually run into the opposite problem though, when trying to work over a printed rendering or something, the ink will act as a waterproof coating on the paper and not let the paint pigment soak in properly.
Jul 24, 08 4:32 pm ·
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Plotter Paper
I'm working on a set of line drawings of an historic building in AutoCad with the ultimate purpose of being sold to visitors. Right now they are simply black and white lines, but we are thinking of adding color either digitally or after plotting. If we color it after plotting, the historic building's board was hoping to do it with watercolor paints.
I don't really know the best paper for high quality line drawings, so I am looking for the perfect plotter paper that will get me super-thin, super-crisp black lines, and/or paper that will plot with high quality lines and allow us to render the color after plotting, whether by watercolor, colored pencils, etc.
Any ideas?
If you're plotting on an Inkjet Plotter (HP DesignJet or similar), Mylar is definately the way to go for picture-perfect lines and colors straight from the plotter. As far as hand-rendering later goes, you can experiment with plotting on Natural Trace or Vellum. I'm not sure how these would work with watercolor, but they will give an excellent surface for colored pencils or Prismacolors.
depending on the plotter, you could get a roll of stonehenge, it takes watercolor fairly well
be warned though, plotter inks do not dry easily on mylar
stonehenge would work. my plotter will plot directly onto sheets of watercolor paper, you might want to try that.
Thanks, mylar sounds like a good idea for our line drawings, I've plotted on it before but my plot was all images so I didn't know how well the lines would come out. I've never heard of stonehenge paper, but it sounds like exactly what we're looking for.
I have a roll of Epson Semi-matte Photo Paper (250) 16"x100' which you can have for $75. It is new and unopened. Send me an email at [email protected]
Thanks for the offer but all of the drawings are at least 24*36 so we need a wider roll than that.
Apurimac- I've never had an issue with ink dry times on mylar. Photo glossy/satin however.... another story all together.
Be careful water coloring on a print from an ink jet, a lot of times that ink is water soluble and when you apply your paint its going to bleed black ink into your color and make them look all muddy. Not really sure how to get around this, you might be able to print it really light, paint it and then re-print it. But that sounds like a nightmare, I’m curious to see if anyone has any suggestions for how to combine watercolor and plotter ink so they won’t run together.
watercolor it first, then plot on it.
that'd be mighty impressive if it registered properly, and if it didn't it might be pretty cool....
kanu, i watercolor all the time on prints from my epson and have never had a problem with the ink running. perhaps if the paper was less toothy it might not work as well or the ink in your printer may just be a different composition? i have actually run into the opposite problem though, when trying to work over a printed rendering or something, the ink will act as a waterproof coating on the paper and not let the paint pigment soak in properly.
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