Bioinspiration in Printmaking – Routes Toward Structural and Pigmentless Colour

Abstract

Colour arises most prominently in the world from subtractive processes. For instance, if a material is dyed with a pigment, when a light is shone upon it, the pigment absorbs portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that the base material does not. This translates directly into a colour, that is, our eye’s interpretation of one small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, known as the visible spectrum (which are waves with a wavelength between 380 – 780 nanometers). For example, in general (though with some notable exceptions) leaves are green because the chlorophyll in them strongly absorbs the red and blue portions of the spectrum, leaving the green to be reflected, irrespective of factors such as viewing angle. It is interesting to recognize that the colour we assign to an object is in fact the colour which is ‘rejected’ by the material composition, as opposed to anything ‘accepted’ by it.

This concept of subtractive colour is so ubiquitous in printmaking that it doesn’t often merit discussion. Subtractive colour pigments are the de facto method of colouration because they are widely accessible, easily manufactured and, most of all, cheap. However, as manufacturing methods become more complex and these pigments in turn become more accessible, we can begin to imagine colouration that is far more complex.