[alt-photo] Re: color theory?

[Kurt Nagy]

Thats what I was looking for,

I mainly work with traditional b/w in my darkroom so I was looking for a game plan on how to attack multi-layer colors from a single negative.  I'd seen several beautiful prints that had upwards of 8 layers but wasn't quite sure how the artist picked their colors.  Obviously it's subjective to the image and what you're wanting to convey but I like having a starting point to experiment from ;)

Thanks for the reply





On Nov 22, 2011, at 2:02 PM, Diana Bloomfield <dhbloomfield at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Well, okay, since nobody else answered, I'll just say what I do.  I mentioned to someone recently that I use only about 3, maybe 4, pigments, and then they saw this big old tray of watercolor pigments, filled to the brim, in my studio.  They asked what happened to my "3 or 4 pigments" that I use.  I then had to explain how many shades there really are of blue or yellow or magenta-- kind of like trying to find the perfect gray wall color-- some have bluish or violet casts; others have green casts; still others have a red cast . . .  (I just painted my living room wall a deep taupe gray, so I am way too familiar with that perfect elusive gray-- though I think I found it in Ben Moore's "Ashley Gray," in case anybody cares.)
> 
> Everybody is different, but I tend to stick with either Daniel Smith watercolors or M. Graham, and typically use a Prussian blue for my cyan layer; a quinacridone gold for the yellow; and something to the left of a real magenta for my magenta layer (typically a burnt scarlet).  For some reason, whenever I use a real magenta, things come out a little too pink for my taste. Those are for tri-colors.  For multi-layer prints, from one b&w negative, I stick with a lot of warm browns and maybe a prussian blue to darken shadows and maybe a gold for some highlights.  I don't do a lot from one negative, but when I do, that's what I do..  That's kind of vague, I guess, but there you have it.
> 
> Diana
> 
> On Nov 22, 2011, at 11:10 AM, Kurt Nagy wrote:
> 
>> Since we're on the subject of our individual process.
>> 
>> How does everyone decide what combination of colors to use for a given print.  Not a tricolor per say but a multilayer print.  I'm rather new at gum printing and have had success with single layer and even single negative tricolor but I haven't tried multilayers, mainly cause I'm not sure what works best.
>> 
>> I guess this is more of a color theory question.
>> 
>> 
> 
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