Re: Help with gum pritns on black paper with white Gouache.

Carmen, I'm not familiar with your paper, but I'm inclined to think it
may be the paper that's your problem. Just out of curiosity this morning
I tried printing white gouache on Arches Cover black, which is the only
black paper I've got. I found, initially, that the gouache gave
beautiful tonal gradations through the midtones (it was a photo of
eggs, the only thing in the studio that I had a contact-size positive
on film of, and don't ask me why; the original subject was white and
brown eggs on a white table, and the white on black gum print rendered
white and grey eggs with a tonal gradation which rendered the rounded
shapes of both the mid-tone and white eggs very nicely against the white
background.. This nicely-rendered gum print came out of the water
intact but was completely lost in drying; the gum and gouache sank into
the very absorbent paper and left nothing of the subtleties of the print
on the surface, just shapes like cutouts. So I'm inclined to point to
the paper.

While it's true that zinc oxide (which is the white gouache I've got) is
said to completely absorb wavelengths below 370 nm, as I think I
reported here some time back, that doesn't seem to appreciably alter its
ability to print with full tonal scale, as I observed today as well as
when I've used it for demonstration prints over a dark (hardened
gum-pigment) background in the past.

You say your white paint is a very cheap paint; in that case it almost
certainly contains fillers, chalks and/or very cheap pigments of dubious
character. I'd stick with a known pigment; titanium oxide is probably
the best bet, although as I say I've printed fine with zinc oxide. It
does sometimes IME produce dichromate stain, but that wasn't the case
today, except in the margin outside the negative.

The suggestion to use black gesso for a size is good; anything to give
the paper a bit more internal body so as to keep the image on top rather
than disappearing under the surface of the paper.
Katharine Thayer

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carmen Lizardo [mailto:carmenlizardo@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, 12 January 2005 6:15 a.m.
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Help with gum pritns on black paper with white Gouache.
>
> Dear List,
> I've been trying to make gum prints on black paper
> with white Gouache from a positive transparency. I am
> using black Folio print paper, some very cheap white
> paint I found I my old art bin. The problem is that I
> loose all of the subtleties in the image and only get
> very high contrast. Is it possible to print mid tones
> with gouache paint? Do the quality of the paint
> matters when it comes to gouache? Maybe is the paper?
>
> Thank you so much for all of the great advice.
> Love,
> Carmen
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
> Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.6.9 - Release Date: 6/01/2005
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
> Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.6.9 - Release Date: 6/01/2005
>
Received on Fri Jan 14 13:15:48 2005