From the Nostalgic Past: DITTO PAINTINGS

  Former teachers and office personel might recall the ditto paper era: a deep purple undersheet attached to a white top sheet with a tan, thin tissue in between. Remember the odor of printing "spirits" and the purple fingers you tried so carefully to avoid? Alas, that technology died. I "recycled" the discarded back sheets for a "carbon" painting. The process was simple. An 8 1/2x11 LINE drawing on drawing paper was taped over the used background sheet. The traced drawing would transfer the purple carbon to the reverse side of the drawing paper. Options were to add white wax, simple areas of crayon color, or rubbed texture sheets to the drawing. Then the fun began.

  What was so interesting about ditto drawings? It was the effect of brush and water or wet color touching a line...like an explosion of bright purple swirls gushing forward with the smallest amount of wetness, very much like an ink wash but much brighter in color. It would delightfully skip over the waxed areas,(glass image) and mixed powerfully with watercolors (sailboat). Even all by itself,(butterfly and fish) ditto paintings were attractive transparent washes with many depths of intensity. Ditto paper was unique and the resulting washes were really fun and a wonderful memory.

  There was always one very important warning: never let the wet washes touch clothing or for that matter, skin. The first was impossible to remove but the latter could wear off with lots of washing. If you can still find old ditto sheets, give this a try. It would be a purple delight.