Re: Acrylic tube pigments for gum?

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004, David J. Greiner Jr. wrote:

> Yes, I have actually made a gum print with acrylics. The best luck I've
> had the few times I've done it, is to use slightly more gum than normal
> and allow it to soak longer than gum for development. The effect is
> sort of gouache like and sort of resembles casein. I also had better
> results with the cheaper student grade acrylics, but the professional
> grade ones didn't work well at all. I'm sure someone with more
> knowledge on the manufacturing process of acrylics could tell you why,
> as I have no idea.

David, it's not so much the "manufacturing process" of acrylics as the
medium itself. Acrylic medium is not soluble in water when it dries.
Period. By adding a higher percentage of gum, that is, by diluting it,
you interfered with that, so were able to get an image -- but you say the
cheaper student grade worked better -- probably , usually, ingredients in
student grade are not so pure, and adulterated with fillers.

I'm wondering why you used acrylic paint to begin with -- curiosity?
economy? I've found some of the colors seem more intense than the
watercolor colors, but the tipping point for not working (in the few tests
I tried) was low, so I didn't pursue further.

However, cheaper paints usually have cheaper often non-archival pigments.
You might want to check that.

Judy
Received on Sat Feb 7 01:25:31 2004