Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Wed, 20 Jan 1999 21:45:53 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Carl Weese wrote:
> As for "proofing" for gum, I'd suspect that PhotoShop in skilled hands
> could offer a vicarious exploration of the picture, as long as you're
> familiar enough with gum printing to know what to allow PShop to do and
> keep it in the range of possibility for the target medium. But then
> you'd run the risk of falling in love with exactly what you got in
> PhotoShop, and then you'd have to have an Iris print made...
Aiye aiye aiye!!! -- the idea of trying to imitate a Photoshop picture
in gum makes me faint. Might as well just print out the placemat & be done
with it.
I often do get an image in Photoshop that's pretty tasty, but that's in
phospors. Trying to translate that into paint on paper would be -- oh, I
don't know, I'd say *at best* a dead end. Because the *syntax* in
photoshop is so different from the *syntax* in gum printing, the effects
don't necessarily intersect. I daresay someone for a conceptual artwork
could try to mimic photoshop in gum. But otherwise, it seems to me like an
exercise in futility. Or defeating the purpose of gum, as I see it anyway.
More conducive, I'd say, to make several starts from the same negative &
vary as you go along. This is especially easy & inviting when working from
separations because the variables are relatively finite rather than
infinite. I'll add that I can practically make one of these little color
separated gums in the time it takes to get the ducks in a row digitally.
Wouldn't want to make that more complex. (And though I'm not *highly
skilled* in Photoshop, I can do the necessary.)
Perhaps, though, this discussion shows why there's so little crossover
between gum printers & platinum printers (or seems to be judging by this
list). Platinum, I gather, demands perfect control. Gum, at least in my
experience, best rewards the hanging loose -- or at least semi-loose.
But you raise a curious point ... Have you -- has anyone -- ever seen an
Iris print as beautiful as the image that "inspired" it on screen? So
far, when I've seen something gorgeous on screen, the translation into
opaque media (by others, not myself) has seemed.... less inspired.
Judy
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