Re: Tri-Curious Seeks Other Tri-Quad Curious Gummists
LOL Michael, Mea culpa. Sometimes I don't reply to a gum question because I wait in the wings for others on the list to answer. I noticed at first no one did, and then got busy with life. I still like you though :)! So follows are my tidbits: As you all know (and Michael, some of this is in the book you have in your little mitts) I mix up stock solutions of color and gum in 60ml bottles--one tube of 14/15ml color to a total volume of 60ml gum/pigment. I mix this at time of use cut in half with gum, and that mix (1 stock to 1 gum) is mixed with 2 tsp of 15% am di (actually, one tsp water and one tsp am di saturated). I find that I usually need to cut THAT concentration of final pigment in my mix depending on colors, trial and error. For instance, raw sienna is a beautiful yellow for the yellow layer but requires TWICE as much color than I normally use. Rowney Permanent Yellow is so clown yellow that I have to cut my color mix in half--1/4 tsp Rowney stock gum/pigment to 3/4 tsp gum. So the real answer to your question is experience. Each pigment has its characteristic strength of weakness. As long as the negatives are curved correctly (I found most of my balancing problems disappeared with correct curves--I was always having too much magenta in my images, or too much yellow) then the balancing of the color in the gum print is accomplished by the saturation of the color. PR209 which is labeled all kinds of different names such as Quinacridone Coral but it is a red, is a very weak pigment in comparison to other reds, and goes great with raw sienna but not so great with Rowney Yellow. Rowney yellow is wonderfully bright and produces great greens combined with blue, but it is so dominant it usually doesn't do that great skin tones unless it is severely reduced. When I print a gum print that comes out imbalanced, there is always a 4th layer to print on top to balance. One could use a blue or a green to tone down yellow or magenta respectively. One could use a black or a neutral, too. The WORST problem I have color balancing is when I do my yellow layer at night under tungsten bathroom lights. I think I have developed sufficiently and more often than not the next day I wake up and drat, there is too much yellow in the print. All the other colors are not a problem for me. In development, yellow can be difficult because it is hard to see in relation to other colors until the other colors are printed on top of it. I also will say that it is rare I have to color balance, and I have been really liking the red colors as opposed to the magenta colors lately...some of the Daniel Smith Perylene Scarlets and Perylene Maroons--they're so bloody when using that they scare me, like maybe I cut my finger. And I also will say that sometimes I use a color combination to be WAY imbalanced to get a point across. My comic image that is currently in the Viewpoints Show (beware, it has a layer of cyanotype underneath) is made with Isoindoline PY139 which is that yellow that you see on road signs, and it is SO brilliant with the red I used that it glows orange. I guess it isn't too bad because it won honorable mention...my poor husband, though, he is always in my images in a less than...stellar way. At least he isn't naked. I mean, I'd like that just fine but somehow he keeps saying, "Honey, the KIDS." As far as blue goes, I find Ultramarine weak, cobalt way weak and expensive, and have just always stuck with thalo blue because it is SO strong. That you REALLY have to cut down strength with. But Ultramarine would be good with, say, raw sienna and quinacridone coral PR 209. Others love ultramarine. I hope some of this makes sense. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Koch-Schulte" <mkochsch@shaw.ca> To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:24 PM Subject: Tri-Curious Seeks Other Tri-Quad Curious Gummists I had posted something (God, was it the match the lit the field?) about a
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