Temp and agitation are not as critical in printmaking, but I like to maintain those things as precisely as possible. The truth is, when printing, a lot of time my prints are physically out of the developer as i work on small areas with Q-tips and "hot" developer, massaging certain areas, and so on. But I prefer all the critical processes to be standardized as a reference point, as a point of beginning. However, I believe that temp and agitation, as well as time, should be standardized in order to establish the basic print. Once that's known, it's easier (for me) to move on to the finer aspects of print making.
As for varying the look significantly, well, it is a matter of degree, wouldn't you say. We're talking about repeatability here, and so, to get two or more prints as close to identical as possible I've always worked at keeping the process itself as close to identical as possible for each print made. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Paul Stenquist > We're talking about printmaking here. Temperature and agitation are > only critical in the film development stage. You're not going to vary > the look of your prints significantly with a few degrees of temperature > or a change in agitation.
