Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Wed, 07 Jul 1999 14:35:12 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 7 Jul 1999, Peter Charles Fredrick wrote:
> Four colur printmaking "CMYK"
> Firstly I print the black printer as a light grey.I use this image as a key
> line image to measure the effect of the colours.Simultaneous contrast makes
> proper evaluation of the yellow difficult, ! a light grey under image
> helps.
>
> Next I print the yellow this colour can be printed at the end or the
> beginning dependent on the yellow used, if a opaque yellow is used then it
> must be put down at this stage such a colour could be cadmium lemon
> yellow.However if you use a Hansa yellow it can be put down last as it is
> transparent There are fores and against's using both systems. You can of
> course us a mixture of the two.
>
> Next I print the magenta quinacridone, this is a tetchy colour which tends
> to coat rather thin so you will probably need two coats to reach a full
> saturation. If you try to build the pigment colour by increasing the
> pigment in the mix you will more than likely run into coating problems
It seems relevant to add that Pete and I have compared notes on this and
the conclusion that the different media work differently is inescapable.
For instance the quinacridone red and hansa yellow are both STRONG colors
in watercolor-gum, in fact I had to cut the amount of pigment several
times to get a good "standard" formula. As I recall, Pete is using
entirely acrylic.... I'd also wonder if different brands and modes of
acrylic don't act differently. Did you say which one, Pete?
For instance, by cosmic coincidence I happen to have out on my table the
Binney & Smith brochure on Liquitex Acrylic Techniques and Mediums. This
points out that the different forms of Liquitex, tube and jar, are
essentially different media. Golden acrylic also makes a LIQUID emulsion
(have you tried that one?)... which was what I used in one or two
experiments with acrylic-gum. (It seemed to work, but there were more
pressing experiments at the time, or seemed to be.)
> Next I print the cyan, normally this will be Phalocyanine blue green shade,
> this is a very powerful colour with high tinting strength, so the amount of
> pigment in the mix will be small this makes for very easy printing and it
> is at this stage that the print comes alive and all the colours begin to
> make themselves felt.
>
> The next stage is one of balancing the three colours against each other if
> extra Yellow is required then a transparent Hansa yellow will need to be
> used, as previously explained. This is a very sensitive stage in the
> production of the print and will depend on demands of colour fidelity and
> aesthetic appeal. I am afraid the answer lies only in the eye of the
> beholder nowhere else.
>
> Finally the black is brought up to required strength sometimes I omit this
> stage completely at other times I reinforce the black to add calligraphic
> effect, it entirely depends on the pictorial requirements, of the image.
> This is the methodology I normally use for standard CYMK work but as an
> increasing amount of my personal work is associated to with Polychrome
> presentation, I may change the order for special effect.
I get a sense that the black is much less problem in acrylic than
watercolor, though it's much easier in digital than continuous tone....
Don't recall which one you said you use -- was it Mars? That was
impossible in wc. I finally settled on Daniel Smith Paynes gray, either
alone or mixed with ivory black. Best of a bad lot for a *transparent*
black. For opaque, gouache is good -- and I suppose with a digital
separation there's no reason not to use opaque ? (you think?).
> Generally the exposure times are the same, however I do use digitally
> separated negs so this would make sense in these circumstances. However I
> sometimes give long exposure to get the colour right up into the highlights
> and conversely give short exposure's to just get the deep shadows to
> stick, this is normally with black or another colour to give a slight bias
> in the shadow area's.
>
> I hope this helps, my hard drive crashed recently so I have lost a lot of
> my recent email's If anybody is waiting for a reply could you please
> re/e:mail me again thanks
That stuff about the hard drive crashing is really ominous -- you're maybe
the 6th just this month. I think it's heading eastward.... uh oh...
(plus of course condolences!)
Judy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Judy Seigel, Editor >
| World Journal of Post-Factory Photography > "HOW-TO and WHY"
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