Opaque v Transparent Pigments

Hi Folks,
It occurred to me that I didn't really have to wait until I have time
to reprint these prints wiith a better color balance, to demonstrate
the difference between opaque vs transparent pigments, since opacity
vs transparency is after all a different issue from color balance or
tonality. So I've simply enlarged a part of each of the prints, to
show the difference I was trying to describe, that I could see in the
prints but that I wasn't sure translated to the electronic
reproductions.

I've always said that in my own experience, to my own eye,
transparent pigments shine through each other in a way that forms
clearer, brighter color blends than opaque colors can possibly make,
and that's why I prefer transparent pigments, especially for
tricolor prints but also anytime I want to use different colors and
have them form clear color blends. I think these enlarged details
show those qualities quite well, and maybe I'll just use this for
the page on pigment opacity and transparency, without spending any
more time on it.

These test prints that the enlarged details come from are the same
ones I showed the other day; the same separations were used for both
prints, and both prints were most probably printed on the same sheet
of sized Arches bright white, as I was cutting larger sized sheets
into small pieces for these small test prints, and these two prints
were done consecutively.

http://www.pacifier.com/~kthayer/html/optrans.html

Katharine
Received on Sun Jan 8 13:07:36 2006