Drop-out Spots When Printing

Often enough I find after printing on canvas with my 3880 that specs of ink come off the dried print leaving the white colour of the canvas.  I'm using Breathing Color Lyve.

I go over the canvas with a cloth before printing. 

Any suggestions?

I use your exact combo without seeing that problem. I'm using the Epson printer driver for watercolor-radiant white (not printing with a profile).

I don't think it is the printing method but dust or something else on the canvas. I suppose it could be inside the printer.

ebkw wrote:I don't think it is the printing method but dust or something else on the canvas.  I suppose it could be inside the printer.

I used to get that same problem occasionally Eleanor, and I pretty much solved it by softly wiping the canvas prior to printing with a painter's tack rag available at any hardware or paint store. A bit of a pain, but it pretty much solves the problem. If you still occasionally get them, get yourself a Prismacolor Premier assortment (I have the 48 color set plus all the different grades of the grays they make) of colored markers to touch up the white dots.  This has saved virtually all of the affected canvases. I too use BC canvas with the my Epson 7900 (Watercolor-radiant white setting).

I used to have the same problem with canvas, particularly BC's Lyve. I worked in a frame shop and we used a Draftsman duster brush to dust artwork before framing so I purchased one for the house. Since then I have no more problems with a dust spot flaking off the canvas and leaving a white spot, BTW, I dust all my paper before printing now.
Here is a link to the one I use:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/alvin ... an-duster/

Thank-you Mark and Randy! I'll try both suggestions and get the Prismacolor Premier assortment. I have bought a few acrylic inks and try mixing them and using a very fine paint brush but have had limited success.

I feel like I need some kind of color mixing chart to tell me what to mix with what to get the colour I need. I'll look for something like that too.

ebkw wrote:Thank-you Mark and Randy!  I'll try both suggestions and get the Prismacolor Premier assortment.  I have bought a few acrylic inks and try mixing them and using a very fine paint brush but have had limited success.

I feel like I need some kind of color mixing chart to tell me what to mix with what to get the colour I need.  I'll look for something like that too.

Those dust white spots are very small and I find that it isn't necessary to be that precise in your color choice - as long as you're in the ballpark you'll get an acceptable match. The Prismacolor marker set gives you several shades of each color, and usually there's one that's close. Again, if you were trying to fill a 1/2 inch white hole, this method would definitely not cut it! The marker pens come with a fine point on one end, and a chisel point on the other end of each color. Definitely get the various shades (i.e. 10%, 20%, 30%, etc.) of gray (I got the cooler set which is more towards the blue shades in case I needed to touch up in the sky areas)  they offer (not in the color kit, but sold as it's own kit), as I often use one of them first before applying the final color dot. This is real easy to do, and will only take you two seconds per dot to apply. Oh yeah, I also find they're great if you need to touch up the corners of the canvas should they get banged up. I think I originally got the Prismacolors from Cheap Joe's Art online.

I just looked and now see the Prismacolor sets are pencils. I thought they were pens.

They make pencils and markers Eleanor... Check out this link at DickBlick

dbostedo wrote:They make pencils and markers Eleanor... Check out this link at DickBlick

Yup. David's right - and here's the sets URL:  http://www.dickblick.com/products/prism ... rker-sets/

I had the same issue.  Solution was getting a special brush for cleaning slides, and brushing off each paper sheet on the print side prior to printing.

Flecks of paper were loose and would fall off sometimes leaving a blank spot, but brushing the paper first cured it.