[alt-photo] Re: color theory?

[Paul Viapiano]

Registration by eye is usually just plain difficult and hit or 
miss...starting with a darker color works better for this.

However, I almost always work light to dark and use pin registration. When I 
put down my shadow tones, I don't want anything else laying on top of them 
to kill the rich darks.

With tricolor, the yellow pigment that I use is not totally transparent so 
it's imperative to lay that down first, then red, then blue...

Paul


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kurt Nagy" <kakarott76 at hotmail.com>
To: "The alternative photographic processes mailing list" 
<alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
Cc: "The alternative photographic processes mailing list" 
<alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:58 PM
Subject: [alt-photo] Re: color theory?


>I guess I just need to dive in and experiment with different colors and 
>layers.  I actually had luck with a few prints using tricolor from just one 
>BW negative.  They looked like complete failures until I added that last 
>layer.
>
> A side question, do you normally move from darker layers to lighter?  I 
> was just playing around with black/grey and registration by eye is 
> obviously very hard starting with a lighter color to a darker one
>
>
>
> On Nov 22, 2011, at 2:38 PM, Diana Bloomfield <dhbloomfield at bellsouth.net> 
> wrote:
>
>> That's a good point, Paul.  I'll second that.  And that "beautiful 
>> uncertainty"  might make the process frustrating at times, but  that's 
>> such a great way to put it, and it does make it all so much more 
>> interesting.
>>
>> On Nov 22, 2011, at 3:33 PM, Paul Viapiano wrote:
>>
>>> Kurt,
>>>
>>> A lot is decided as the print unfolds...many times a color won't print 
>>> as dark or as saturated as you planned, which will make your next move 
>>> different than you originally thought.
>>>
>>> There's a beautiful uncertainty to gum that allows one to go with the 
>>> flow. Many times I planned on doing 3 layers and ended up with 5 or 6, 
>>> because the print didn't say *finished* to me...
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kurt Nagy" <kakarott76 at hotmail.com>
>>> To: "The alternative photographic processes mailing list" 
>>> <alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
>>> Cc: "The alternative photographic processes mailing list" 
>>> <alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:27 PM
>>> Subject: [alt-photo] Re: color theory?
>>>
>>>
>>>> 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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