From: Katharine Thayer (kthayer@pacifier.com)
Date: 09/11/03-03:30:55 AM Z
Judy wrote
>
> > Because, as has been noted, the life of a gum print comes from the tiny
> > twinkle of white interstices - the paper showing through the emulsion. If
> > that's gone -- I suppose you CAN get a lively print, but I think it has a
> > different character & has lost more than gained.
>
I've been thinking about this again this morning. It's a fundamental
difference, I think, in how opaque prints are viewed, versus how
transparent prints are viewed. I started this discussion by saying that
it wasn't necessary to cover up the light coming from the paper to get
density; Judy's reply suggested in a polite way that this was a silly
thing to say, because people don't hold their prints up to light to look
at them; there is no "light" coming through the print, but (as quoted
above) the "life" comes from twinkles of white paper showing through
holes in the gum. At the time I thought, well, she's right, it's not
really light, it's just the paper.
But the more I think about it, I realize that I meant exactly what I
said in the first place. A print that relies on opacity, or covering
power, to provide density has to also rely on these bits of paper
showing through holes in the gum to provide "light" and if the paint is
so opaque or heavy that the paper doesn't twinkle through in spots, then
you get the dull flat tone I mentioned before, that seems to be the goal
of some gum printers, although Judy wasn't among those I was referring
to.
On the other hand, a transparent gum print owes its "life" to light
going through the gum, striking the white paper, and reflecting back to
the eye through the layers of gum. It gives a sense of richness and
depth that simply isn't possible with an opaque treatment. And yes,
it's possible, which was my original point, to get density, or DMax,
without sacrificing transparency. And yes, there are people who seem to
believe that until they have extinguished every bit of that "light" they
haven't got proper DMax; in other words they have conflated opacity, or
covering power, with density, or DMax.
It's like we're talking about different media, and in fact the
difference between transparent and opaque gum prints is exactly the same
as the difference between transparent watercolor and gouache. And BTW,
it's not debatable whether gouache is opaque; that's the definition of
gouache, that the paint has been rendered opaque by the addition of
white.
Katharine
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