Kabury@aol.com
Sat, 23 Jan 1999 21:23:43 -0500 (EST)
Hi Adam,
I've finally figured out how to reply to a message on this list so I'll join
the discussion.
One reason there may be so much talk about CMYK is just simply that when you
use Photoshop it creates separation negatives for you just by asking it to in
the print menu. And this makes for an easy way to get negatives to start
playing with multicolor gum printing.
The CMY relate to the three primaries for watercolor pigments of blue, red and
yellow. This is different than the three primaries for monitors of red,
green, and blue, RGB. Then, how I see the black (or K) coming in is that if
you were just working with watercolors, not in gum printing, you would mix
white in with a color to make a lighter shade and black into it to get a
darker shade. In gum printing, the paper kind of acts like the white - if the
color is thin in a part of the image the color looks lighter. But to get the
darker shades in gum printing you can use the black negative.
In contrast to what I have seen on this list, I almost always use the black
negative to give the image more depth and deepen the shades of color. It's
often very critical to me in terms of how the image looks. Then, again there
are times I don't use it because I like how it looks without it. It's a
matter of how you want the image to look. Other times I've not used the cyan
negative or the magenta negative. Or I've used red with the cyan negative --
the possibilities are endless.
I also have a question -- I've read a lot about paper negatives on the list.
Why would you use paper negatives vs. using transparency material in the
printer to make negatives?
Finally, a note for those people in the Boston area. I have an exhibit at the
Newton Free Library up through January 28th. It's entitled "An Intimate
Perspective on Flowers." Included are multicolor gums, Iris "Giclee" prints
and regular C-prints.
Kathy Pillsbury
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