Re: pigments and more

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From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 10/05/01-12:32:08 PM Z


On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, lva wrote:

> > Yeah, pardon my New York sarcasm (see, we're coming back)...
>
> Glad to see that. Seriously, is there any chance I could get 50 or so
> grams of that fine white dust from the towers?

Brahma, even if I were to clean house that assiduously, which I assure you
I have not nor ever will.... do you know how much dust it would take to
equal 50 grams? About 10 years worth !

> > have you ever brushed out the original mix next to the
> > "same" color after exposing and developing with the gum and the
> > dichromate?
>
> Many times. Do you have have a clue why the results are so different?
>

Your idea is probably as good as, or better than, mine.... if some higher
power gave me an extra day to study the point, I'd start by coating plain
pigment, then pigment in gum, then pigment & gum in dichromate on two
papers, exposing one to extended UV light & comparing, then "developing."
POSSIBLY this would hold a clue. But the important point is that it
happens, not why (like winter !). It therefore might (might!) render moot
the "purity" of what the "original" paint in the tube is according to
Wilcox. The point is what it looks like in the print.

> > There's another classic artists' materials book, Doerner.... less
> > satisfying (when struggling with it I used to say "not quite
> > translated from the original German"), but with good info for painters
> > (or classic painters) not found elsewhere. Don't know if that's been
> > revised or not.
>
> Any idea what the book is called is German? I'd like to locate it. Is it
> of interest for gum printers?

"The Materials of the Artist & Their Use in Painting with Notes on The
Techniques of the Old Masters" by Max Doerner, professor in the Academny
of Fine Arts, Munich. My "revised edition", Harcourt Brace & Co, is 1949,
copyright 1934.

Whether of interest for gum printers depends... I think anything about use
of classic art materials, paper, pigment, media, varnishes, all of which
he addresses, are relevant... and ways the "old masters" got their effects
interesting in themselves... but others don't waste time like that,
preferring empirical info. However, sometimes photographers whom we revere
had imperfect or partial info about these "art" materials & may well have
erred accordingly.

> Speaking of books, I am desperately looking for this book:
>
> A.W. Thomas -- Color from the Earth: The Preparation and Use of Native
> Earth Pigments, 1980.
>
> I've tried bookshops and antiquariats. No luck so far. But I'd really
> like to read that.

Have you tried Powell's? abebooks.com, bookfinder.com???

Judy


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