As the cognoscenti said in the 1900s,
Alex said :
>It would seem that the degree of pigment dispersion of certain artists'
>colourants leaves much to be desired!
.
>When one would expect a good quality gloss paint to have a Hegman
>reading of < 5 microns,You can see what I'm getting at!
When I took up gum printing more than twenty years ago I was influenced by my
own water-colour experience and a love for the English water-colour tradition
where transparent colour is used so that the paper base provides the whites and
the highlights. Water-colours by their very nature are going to have pigments
where the grain is going to be of a different size for each pigment. The
pigments will react differently with each other. They will have differing
qualities such as their likelihood to stain or not or clump or grain upon the
paper when mixed with other pigments. They will differ in permanence and
transparency. And they will vary in effect with the paper used, its finish and
its sizing.
As with a water-colorist, making gum prints for me involves using knowledge of
these qualities, acquired from experience and manuals and from W & N's useful
and reliable publications, to express my own creative abilities. I have arrived
at a number of pigments which do the job for me. All are tube water-colours from
W & N or acylics from Liquitex or W & N. except for a powder pigment for deep
blacks and metallic powders from Cornellesen.
I think it is a mistake to expect these pigments to act in a standardised
manner as one would expect a range of colours on a decorator's paint chart.
Just as I would be most upset if Dulux from a tin behaved in the same way as a
water-colour when I came to paint my walls, I would also be none too pleased if
my gum prints turned out looking like Dulux.
I do not use opaque colours as they would remove the subtlety that I require
of a gum print. So no poster colours or gouache. I gave up screen printing as it
tends to lack the subtlety of gum printing by its very nature. I gave up using
pure pigments within weeks of starting my gum printing as it was clear that the
practice was not as effective and no cheaper than using water-colour from tubes.
Grinding one's own pigments is not going to add one jot to one's ability to
produce a good gum print. As to mixing the colours and dispersing the pigment
within the medium, people have been using palette knives for centuries; why
should gummists think that they have special needs ?
As I have said before, I have no objection to any 'gummist' using any method as
as long as it does not frighten the horses and is unlikely to kill anyone else.
But they should remember that there is nothing special about gum printing. The
principles are simple. It is how they are used creatively that matters. Any over
complication that gets in the way of their effective implementation is to be
deplored..
As to maximum sharpness, I hear that there is some stuff called silver gelatine.
I have tried it and it seems to work quite well. One can even do it in
different colours.
Terrry King