This is not the article I had in mind, discussing the last gum print made. Overall, it was... okay, but then okay doesn't meet exhibition quality printing. I finally decided to add one more thin, very sheer layer of a translucent watercolor black. What I had said, over and over, about making a mistake on a gum, how it becomes junk. My instincts at this stage of printing are a bit lacking. The sheer black layer was not sheer enough. It merely masked everything below it to make it look more like an overprinted and muddy b&w print. Painful, that.
As painful as it may be, I have no choice to be start over, from scratch. Even re-masking the negative and preparing the paper, being that was the last sheet. The preparations for the paper takes three days. So, in about a week I'll have a few coats on the print, this time altering the color order to some degree, as well as altering the print time slightly. This negative has twice the density range as "The Flute Player". On the bright side of the ledger, I applied the third color to this print, and can say that it is coming along swimmingly. I am able to adjust the printing according to what I am finding with the earlier prints. The color layers are more sheer, and thin. The thinner the layers the better detail in the print, although, reciprocally, it takes more layers to add up to a fully printed image. Everything is a trade off.
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