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Dear Arrighi,
I have been doing some white copperplate on black paper. Do you have some information about which "white" works best?
Signed,
Which White?
Dear Which White,
I have done some test pieces with a copperplate class and I'll share the results with you.
1) Most preferred: Ziller white ink: it is opaque, nice flow, good hairlines but it needs gum arabic added because it erases easily.
2) Pro-white was next, opaque, good flow, easy to work with, the hairlines were OK, stays put with erasing.
3) Zinc white gouache was OK, smeared a little with erasing.
4) White pearlescent is waterproof, opaque, easy flow, but had consistently thick hairlines.
5) Silver pearlescent didn't flow as well as white, can get hairlines.
6) FW Acrylic is waterproof, opaque, flows too fast.
7) Permanent White gouache was hard to work with and inconsistent in its flow.
There are our observations. Mixing some of these might make them more appropriate to a particular paper. If any of my readers have some testing results of their own please share them with me!
Signed,
Arrighi