<<
The case for the use of a transparent yellow has much force and has been
made
in a recent thread I think Carson Graves best expressed it as ;-
>>
I agree with what Mark said. It has been my experience that in dealing with
Cadmium Yellow, it is not very transparent. That when printing gums the
transparency of the pigment is critical in determining the order of printing.
That is not to say the you can't print yellow over cyan and magenta, I often
do this to bring a print into balance. But when I do this I know that I will
need to print at least one more layer of magenta and cyan to bring the
shadows back from their veiled appearance. Then when I print my next print
from the same set of negs I print all the yellow coats first from my notes
then I don't have to print as many magenta and cyan coats.
Carson Graves mentions gravures in his post. Yellow inks are much more
transparent than the Yellow watercolors I have found so far. Also dye
transfer order has been mentioned. Each process has its own sets of needs
and way the pigments interact may not be transferable from one process to
another. Also it was said that several "glazing" coats of yellow as the
last coats would work. In truth I don't understand this yet. It would seem
that if the color is not transparent then several thin coats to build up
density would be as opaque as fewer coats. Also as I normally do between 4
and 8 coats of yellow already, I am not sure how much thinner it needs to be.
It has been mentioned that there are artificial yellows that are totally
transparent. I haven't been able to find the Liquitex watercolors and I am
looking forward to testing some new yellows.
Also one item I touched on a couple of months ago that is pertinent to this
discussion is that I find that the yellow is most sensitive to what I call
tanning. That is, the tendency of the gum to turn brown when exposed. My
tests indicate that it takes an extremely long wash time (over 12 hours) to
get rid of this tanning. I know that this came up in re: to Dichromate
staining. But I think of the yellow stain as Dichromate staining and the
image created in the gum by light as tanning. Given this, I find it
convenient to print the yellows first to give them the longest time to
"clear" because this tanning isn't as significant in the darker colors. I
have found that for my way of working that usually two to three hours of
soaking (washing) is enough to give me the clearing I want of the pigment but
doesn't completely get rid of the tanning. So that I will only really start
to judge the yellow coats after the print has been immersed several times
usually after 8 or 9 coats overall. There is a huge color and density shift
between the yellow color with and without the tanning underneath it. I have
also found that the darker the gum the more it will tan. I had a bottle of a
very light 14 Baume gum that I used just to mix the lighter colors like Raw
Umber and Yellow. Keeping the regular ole gum for the rest of the pigments.
Judy once said "Everything affects contrast" I would like to expand on that
corollary to "Everything affects everything".
I'm sorry this is so long.
Bernie
Bernard Boudreau