From: Joe Tait (jtait@texas.net)
Date: 12/18/02-11:26:57 PM Z
> Hi Joe,
> Are you referring to the fact that over time the colors of the inks in
> these old ads have shifted and faded? You want that color-shifted look?
> If that's so, there's probably not a color emulsion that will reproduce
> that for you, but since you're talking about doing gum anyway, I
> wouldn't worry about getting that color balance or lack thereof on the
> film but would create it with your choice of gum colors.
I don't necessarily want a faded look, more a high-contrast, short-scale,
saturated look; at least for some of the scenes. But what I have always seen in
those ads was a strong departure from literal color rendition of known subjects,
fleshtones, hair color, any number of subjects. Someone else pointed out (sorry,
the post is on my work computer and I'm at home) that there was extensive
modification/touchup of the film seps prior to burning the plates and going to
press in those days, which answered my question about how the look was
realized....makes sense, and your comment about focusing on printing and my
choice of "process" pigments/watercolors to attain that look is surely the
correct approach, so I'll stop concerning myself with the right negative.
Someone here
> who works in the printing industry could probably help you with the
> right choice of colors to substitute for the "process" colors, to
> simulate the fading and color-shifting of the inks.
I think I can work my way through pigment choice and look forward to just
experimenting and discovering the versatility of gum.
For those in the printing industry/mindset on this list...anyone tried using
hexachrome/CcMmYKk type applications to increase the color gamut and tonal
gradation of gum? Although I have no real knowledge here : ) , I have no reason
to think that CMY/CMYK gum printing wouldn't "suffer" from the same limitations
as other process printing, I'd imagine that one of the benefits/techniques of
multicoating would be to overcome those issues. I guess with gum being an
elusive process, trying to force such a systematic methodology comes across as
kind of misguided, but might offer some real gains as well. I'm going to explore
printing on a rigid substrate, so perhaps in a decade I might be able reliably
register 8 negatives in 16 passes!
>
> Yes, you can paint over gum with acrylic without a barrier between. You
> could also use watercolors to paint over gum. In either case, you won't,
> or shouldn't, get an interaction between the overwashes and the gum
> layer, (what I mean here is that the overwash shouldn't disturb the
> hardened gum) as the pigment in the gum layer will be hardened and
> inert.
> Katharine Thayer
This is good news. I really, really like glazing and slowly building up color
relationships/interactions in the painting I have done, so I am glad I can just
jump into further interpretation of a gum print with acrylics. My experience
with watercolors is that they can get too muddy, are too vulnerable with too
many washes and are too damn expensive! The right choices in acrylics yield the
exact opposite in the first two, and are much cheaper.
-Joe
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