Re: acrylic size for gum printing

Jack,
This is the wonderful thing about gum; there's just about nothing that
any two gum printers do the same, but gum is so versatile that people
can mold it to their own goals and methods and make it work for them.
Thanks for sharing. It's fascinating to me that you can get 1:2 to work;
for me even 1:4 the gum just slides off it. And I love the Scotch-Brite
idea for creating tooth, too.

One of my favorite things to say about gum (I like it so much I say it
again and again) is that what I love about gum is that it simply resists
ideology.
Katharine

Jack Brubaker wrote:
>
> Over a week qgo I was asked for spicifics of my acrylic sizeing methods. I
> was hesitant to respond because I have mostly used a very different appoach
> that most list members (in part because I have slightly different goals).
> Although I am playing with other sizing option since joining the list a
> couple years ago I have printed most of my gums on a size of one part
> liquitex Matt Medium and one part water. I make up about a pint and add a
> few drops of household ammonia as a preservative. The diluted acrylic will
> grow mold without some additional preservative. This coating is MUCH less
> dilute than most workers use (more like 1 to 10 seems to be common
> practice). The reason this works for me is that I use a real brush (not
> foam, which will break up with the aggressive way I work) to spread the
> layer out as thin as will cover the paper and then continue brushing the
> paper aggressively in alternating directions until there is no gloss from
> wetness in the size. This brushing helps matt out the surface and prevent
> the coating being too slippery for the gum to hold onto the size. It is true
> as Judy has pointed out that this sort of a size will not hold the lightest
> tones with still development. I like a less photographic, slightly
> posterized look so that has not been a major problem for me. When I want
> fine light tones I print a thin coat of color with more dilute gum so the
> layer will be thin. I over expose this layer to the extent that it will
> bearly start to develope with floating on the water. I use aggressive
> brushing to scrub off the tones. The brushing may continue for several
> minutes. Because the size is so tough a smooth paper will brush develope
> delicate tones with great control. This approach has for the most part only
> worked across a short tonal scale so it would not do a one coat print, it is
> used just to print the fine tones and have a range of control of selective
> development. I use several other layers to build up the midrange and darker
> tones and colors. I don't think this is a method that would suit many
> printers and there are many printers out there who probably make better
> prints, but having opened my mouth and been asked a direct question I felt
> obliged to answer.
>
> The advantage of this size is that its "bombproof", it will not stain or
> break down even with many layers and aggresive development. It can be used
> on many papers that would not usually be recommended for gum. Thin drawing
> papers that might tear when handled after long soaks will be strengthened by
> the size to the point that printing and development are no problem. It is
> possible to apply too much size and have a slick surface that won't hold the
> gum. In that case I use scotch-brite pads to lightly scratch the size and
> give a little tooth.
>
> I realize that there are several features of this method that violate
> accepted dogma. I am rebuilding my web site now and hope to have a gallery
> on my work up by fall. When I do I'll post that info.
>
> Jack
Received on Fri Aug 12 15:10:14 2005