Re: favorite gum pigment colors

Hi Mark,
I love whining, especially if it's a full bodied red...

Colors in my list are for tricolor and are essentially transparent. That's
why you don't see cadmiums on there. In my complete list I have what is
transparent and what is semi-transparent and the direction the color leans
(e.g.green or orange biased yellows, orange or bluer reds).

I have included in the complete list only those pigments that Page, Wilcox,
and Handprint seem to agree are lightfast. This took a lot of back and
forth research and made me eliminate some colors that Page says are OK but
Handprint doesn't, for instance.

I am planning on doing some side by side tricolors of different tonal
palettes before next semester--for instance, a true magenta and true cyan
and primary yellow, or an earth palette of the opaques like venetian red,
yellow ochre, and cerulean...they'll produce different looking prints (as
Tom Sobota's masks show) but my guess is that any tricolor will still look
"normal", providing you print the red with the green negative, the yellow
with the blue, and the blue with the red (I just had to say that because I
have to get used to saying things that are obvious to me but won't be to a
class next semester:)).

When I have used the scarlet type reds, they make for a pretty brilliant
red! I am testing the Old Holland Vermillion for that reason and also
because of the "romance" surrounding its being the only brand using this
pigment (as well as PY138).

On my class supply list they are to buy M. Graham PV19 Quinacridone Rose,
Phthalo blue, and Azo yellow, and a black and a burnt sienna. At MSU for
$4.55 a tube they won't spend an arm and a leg.

For duotones you want black and a brown for instance. Over cyano
duotone...I'd suggest a brown.

Daniel Smith puts out some wonderful quinacridones that are brilliant,
transparent, and earth toned--q. gold, q. burnt sienna, etc.

If I lived in Europe I'd probably use Maimeri brand because it is cheap.

All of this said, right now in my "dark"room I have easily 10 different
yellows and 10 different reds, only 5 blues (thalo, ultra, indanthrone,
cobalt, and cerulean). I have used all of them, but don't usually use the
cadmiums anymore nor nickel titanate yellow which is somewhat too green and
chalky in my opinion nor cerulean. Cobalt is too expensive and weak, but it
is a beautiful color. That said, i guarantee you there is a gum printer out
there that loves these colors. Somewhere.

And, of course, I have cyano solution always mixed...I'll print a layer of
cyano on top of a finished gum sometimes. It's fun to see what you get with
that.

As far as whether staining or nonstaining, I don't pay attention to that
anymore because with my practice of sizing and using a thicker gum, it is no
longer a problem. I pay attention to the balance of the saturation of the
colors moreso. Quinacridones are gorgeously saturated and transparent but
you do have to size if you use a loaded gum/pigment mix with them.
Chris

Chris,

Thanks for the great information. For the great unwashed on the list, I
wondered if you could comment on the groups of colors you mentioned
regarding
transparent vs opaque colors, before I mortgage my children and order a few
vats
of the stuff.

Another question I had was which of the "yellows" & "magentas" seem to work
best with tri-rubber prints using cyan, magenta, & yellow gum layers AND
which
work best doing Dual Rubber/Cyanotype full color work.

One thought I had was that it would be an interesting exercise to
demonstrate
how use of different combinations create various "palettes" when doing full
color, just as one thinks of the palette of colors used by various painters.

I didn't see Sherwin-Williams on the list.... jejejeje

Don't ya just love it when you provide information and people whine for
more?
  Thanks again.

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson
Precision Digital Negatives

In a message dated 12/11/05 11:34:22 AM, zphoto@montana.net writes:

> Good morning!
> I've been putting the finishing touches on a list of pigment choices for
> tricolor gum to use in my class next semester. It's been fun, actually,
> comparing Wilcox and Page and now adding to that sum of knowledge
> Handprint.com. I thought the list might enjoy my experience and further
> research.
>
> Then, of course, I just had to order some more pigment because I got
> seduced
> by the descriptions...That's a tax deductible expense, of course :)
>
> I realize I use mostly: M. Graham, Daniel Smith, Maimeri, and Holbein.
>
> Usually I find myself using a bright, clear yellow like an arylide, PY65,
> PY97, or a benzimidazolone like PY175, or an azo PY151, common pigments
> available in a number of companies. If I want warm I use PY110 which used
> to be by M. Graham and now only by Daniel Smith--permanent yellow deep, or
> the slightly more opaque PY139 permanent yellow deep by Maimeri (the
> latter
> only in Maimeri I think at this time of writing). Makes great comic book
> golds.
>
> Usually I use a PV19R, like M. Graham's quinacridone rose. At $4.55 a 15ml
> tube here at MSU it is cheap and really a good paint. This is a common
> pigment, as can be seen by this list:
> WN permanent rose
>
> MG quinacridone rose
>
> DS quinacridone rose
>
> DS quinacridone red
>
> M primary red
>
> M rose lake
>
> Schmincke ruby red
>
> (M is maimeri, others are self explanatory)
>
> I also use PR209 quinacridone red like MG quinacridone red, WN
> quinacridone
> red or M tiziano red or a PR254 diketo pyrrolo pyrrole red like Maimeri
> sandal red.
>
>
>
> Then there are some unusual pigments which I am going to try, one of a
> kinds:
>
> PR260 isoindoline scarlet only in Old Holland vermilion (hue) extra (no
> blue
> reflectance so mixes well with other warm colors and with greens).
>
> PY 138 quinophthalone yellow I can find only in these two brands:
>
> Rowney Artists permanent yellow
>
> Fragonard permanent lemon yellow
>
> PY 159 zirconium praseodymium silicate
>
> I could find only in WN Winsor lemon yellow deep.
>
>
>
>
> I'm sticking with single pigment choices.
>
>
>
> What's nice is I notice both Maimeri and Winsor Newton and maybe other
> companies have labels that are helpful--Winsor red, Winsor yellow, Winsor
> blue, for instance, and Maimeri's Primary Red, Primary Yellow, Primary
> Blue,
> could get a student started in tricolor easily and inexpensively and with
> high quality pigment choices.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
>
Received on Tue Dec 13 11:12:35 2005