A Fantastic (and Highly Flammable) New Development!

During my capstone presentation to the faculty, one of the professors brought up the idea of putting the actual words from the writers into my art. I liked the idea in theory, but had no idea how to make it a reality. First, I researched how thermal paper worked, learning that at a certain temperature, the chemical coating turns black, but could never find what temperature that might be. Next, I looked into how to go about writing on the thermal paper. Since I want the entire project to be made of receipt paper, I tried to avoid resorting to simply printing out quotes on any other material. I worried the mix of textures would be a problem. Yet another problem appeared when I learned how expensive the thermal printers were. This didn't really surprise me or anything, but did make it quite an obstacle.


I decided to test writing on the thermal paper to see how it looked. Here's the result:

 

 I suppose this image is against me because it will only upload sideways.  Anyway, from the bottom up it reads "WS" for William Shakespeare, although I've really come to call him Billy. The words come from two of his quotes: "When words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain" and "I hold the world but as the world; A stage where every man must play a part, and mine is a sad one." The notes I wrote next to this explain that I chose my uppercase print handwriting because it was the neatest, and since I would be cutting them apart, there are obvious spaces to do so. I worked not only with how my handwriting would look, but also experimented with the shape with which I tried to create. Obviously when I put the words onto the collage, they would get mixed a bit when I started to shade.

I was feeling pretty good about myself because I felt I had at least found a back-up plan. This way, I could simply cover over some of the text work I already did with white (or remove it, depending on how easy that is) and put down black paper. Then, with my own hand and playing with the typography I love so much, I could fill in the shaded areas. At the same time though, I don't really know if it's absolutely necessary to write my own words, because part of me also likes how the words are all from receipts instead of the writers, but the words from the writers make sense as well. This is an issue I can't seem to solve.

Yet my night was not over yet! A few hours earlier, I went to the store and bought a nice little pack of matches. When I was sitting in Solid Design today, a thought struck my head and made my mouth drop open. I had been thinking about the issue with writing on the paper and trying to think of ways that would be more controlled and how I could text what the temperature might be to alter the color of the paper. I suddenly thought of matches and candles, wondering how long they stayed warm after being blown out. I decided to rush to the store as soon as possible and experiment.

With a box of matches, my sketchbook full of quotes, and some thermal paper in my tiny hands, I dashed down the stairs to a well-lit, cement-infested, flame-resistant area outside. I wore my winter coat over a sweatshirt, trying to keep out the cold, but I barely noticed as I fell to my knees and held down the thermal paper with the edge of my sketchbook. I pressed the paper flat and pulled out my first match. Here's what transpired as I tried to write:

Words from Hamlet

"Words words words" - Billy

I found the writing was not going as I had planned, but I wasn't entirely against the results. Then, mostly out of play, I started gently brushing the lit matches close to the paper. It made marks that reminded me of painting with ink. After I ran out of my whole box of matches practicing, I ran back up to my flat with my receipt paper fluttering in the breeze behind me.

Paint brush marks from a flame

After speaking with a few of my professors, I have learned this technique is known as sfumato and has been used by people such as Leonardo daVinci. The best example would be the Mona Lisa, where the technique is used on her eyes. Now, that's using it on oil paints, whereas I'm using thermal paper. I'm going to do a few more experiments with this technique over Thanksgiving Break and show it to the class during my presentation to find out what they think. It's still a thought in progress, but I'm really starting to like it a lot more than the collage (which is oh so terribly tedious).