RE: First Tricolor Gum (on aluminum)...for dummies
Hi
Trevor,
I have
made many gum prints on shiny aluminum and while a tad trickier, it is certainly
possible. Prints like this can be a bit difficult to display. Unless
they are are lit perfectly, so that light bounces back at the viewer, they can
actually appear rather drab. Keep in mind that the highlights will only be
as bright as the bare surface, and that surface is in fact pretty gray unless it
is reflecting light.
For
some subject matter, bare aluminum is the perfect substrate. I'm working
now on a series of pictures of grain elevators. Many of my shots were
taken of metal structures reflecting the sun and when the print is
successful, the end result can be uncanny in its representation of the original
scene,
As for
"why print on aluminum" using gesso? Its cheap, It's fast (using a
hairdryer a 4 layor gum print can be finished in a couple of hours). It
does not shrink. And best of all, you can keep scraping the image off and
starting over when things go awry.
Keith
i know i'm
probably an idiot for asking this, but when i first saw the subject of this
thread, it sparked interest in me with the thought of these metallic color
prints...the gesso layer put the kebash on that...isn't there a way to
preserve the reflective nature of the metal to produce a "glowing" print
(kinda like cibachrome sparkles)...otherwise, why print on
aluminum?
Loris Medici <mail@loris.medici.name>
wrote:
My
understanding also is the same, CaCO3 gives a gritty/toothy
surface.
Probably matte acrylic gesso also contains considerable amnt. of
CaCO3
both as a colorant and as a surface tooth agent. Since I learned
this
from Keith and I also know that he may put 6 - 7 layers on top of
each
other, I'd say this kind of surface priming is pretty robust. The
layer
order is Cyan, Magenta and Yellow... (Black is missing - didn't
bother
since the M layer was unregistered, I just wanted to see how
colors
interact with each
other.)
Regards,
Loris.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Katharine Thayer [mailto:kthayer@pacifier.com]
Sent: 11 Aralęk 2006
Pazartesi 17:07
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: First
Tricolor Gum (on aluminum)
...
The calcium carbonate, I take
it, is for "traction" to give the gum
something to hang onto, much like
the fine sand I use in acrylic for
the same purpose on hard surfaces. I
find that it doesn't always
hold three layers; sometimes it will, but
sometimes the top one will
only hold in areas where there aren't already
two layers of gum. And
sometimes the top layer will stick to the other
two layers and then
all three layers pull off the surface together. So
I'd say you did
quite well on your first attempt. Which was your last
layer, the
yellow or the magenta?
I suppose in a way this could
be seen as a variation on the gelatin/
gesso thing. It's interesting to
watch how ideas spread and
mutate.
Katharine
"The optimist believes
this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it's true" - J
Robert Oppenheimer
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