[alt-photo] different colors, different coating problems

[Christina Anderson]

Charles,

Again, apologies if this email already came because it did not come to me.

Apparently my emails from MT are landing in people's spam folders, maybe because I am in a different state than MT who the heck knows.

Pthalo has to be diluted so much, ultramarine so little. I think I dilute Pthalo 15ml + 485 gum. Ultra maybe 1/10 that.  Ultra is nice when you want a weak neutralizing shade but I usually don't use it, instead preferring pthalo for a green-blue and indanthrone blue for a purple-blue because both give me more bang for my buck.

The last coat of whatever always looks streaky, because it is darker usually, and it is on top of several other coats and therefore doesn't have as much to grab onto.  It's a pain, really.

I put down the blue first, then the yellow, then the magenta, and then another blue on top.

I always use a 1:1 gum/pigment to dichromate, and I prefer Daniel Smith gum, buying it by the gallon. It is wonderfully thick and rich and light colored. So that will give you an idea of my thickness of coat.  I use about 1/2 tsp per 8x10, use the Connoisseur 2" hake brush to brush on, and then while still sort of tacky, use a 3" Connoisseur hake brush to even out the streaks (a cheaper alternative to the badger hair brush).

I find that reds/magentas in general fish eye on me like a banshee.  Very frustrating.  I feel that certain pigments have either oiliness to them or maybe larger molecules or whatever the hell, but fisheyes are always an issue with reds.  But out comes my trusty Prismacolor pencil to "spot" the defects that I am unable to brush out.

I have never acid prewashed or whatnot my FAEW paper, though I do preshrink and always size.

It was so wonderful to teach gum to the Penland students, and to have 2 weeks in which to do so.  They did excellent work by the end of the workshop.  At first I thought 2 weeks was overkill, you know?  Because I had taught 2-day gum workshops and 5-day gum workshops and it seemed like enough.  But what happens in a 2-week workshop is the students get the rudiments down in the first week and then after that you harp harp harp and watch watch watch how they coat, how they mix, all those little teeny things that go unnoticed perhaps that you now have an extra week to notice and can correct. I think the coating process is one of the more important issues that contributes to gum problems.

As a funny, one student wasn't getting any layers to stick.  This I could NOT figure out. She was the one who finally realized that she thought my "working strength" pigment mixes that I did for the class contained the dichromate already, and she wasn't adding dichromate!!!  That was MY bad--those little details you think are common sense are not! Now I know to label "add dichromate" to the working strength solutions.

Blah blah blah I'm blathering on but I finally have a moment this summer to relax and write.

Chris


Christina Z. Anderson
christinaZanderson.com

On Jun 30, 2010, at 4:04 PM, Charles Ryberg wrote:

>  Paul Viapiano's beautiful prints inspired me to tackle gum, again.  By looking at his, I determined that I had been using WAY too little pigment. I increased the amount of Hansa Yellow and got a lovely mixture which went down on the paper like very high quality wall paint.  No brush marks, no streaks, just an even yellow field.  My Perelene Red went down like cheap discount wall paint.  Careful application and quick but thorough blending gave me a satisfactory field.  But the French Ultramarine looks awful with streaks and brushmarks no matter what I do.  I tried    a little Tween     a lot of Tween     increasing the gum proportion    increasing the water proportion     using everclear (95% ethanol) for half the water.  All ugly.
> 
>  Then I read that Paul uses Pthalo blue, so I tried that with some small improvement but the Pthalo stains like mad--never gives me anywhere near paper white.
> 
>  I really have to put the yellow down first because it is opaque and has a reputation for making muddy colors if used second or third--so I can't do gum over cyano.  Well, I suspect I can't, but I may try it out of desperation though what the necessary acid prewash will do to FAB's gum friendly size is dubious.
> 
>  Any suggestions?
> 
> Charles    Portland Oregon 
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Christina Z. Anderson
christinaZanderson.com