"The Flute Player" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

The Flute Player print is finally finished. After two months of some pretty interesting obstacles, and a self-inflicted wound that wasn't a lot of fun, I've finally brought this image to a conclusion. This is the most complex gum print I ever attempted. There were 21 printings with over 35 color applications applied to the image. I also learned ever more subtle aspects of gum printing that I had not encountered thirty years ago, printing with paper negatives, as well as limiting the color layers to six or eight, with exception to the final gum print I made at that time, which consisted of thirteen color layers. I don't advise anyone to attempt a complex gum print until they have a really good grasp of the layering process, as once begin stacking colors over each other interesting things happen.

For those that see the fuller color spectrum, you will be able to notice what my wife did, after it was too late of course. When I added a layer of magenta on the Mime's beret, to bring up the color depth, I failed to see a line of magenta running down the side of the dark area of her hair and part of her face. That could have been alleviated by simply taking a wet brush and wiping it away after the floating, when the ran occurred. But then, if said color run isn't seen, it ends up drying with the rest of the print, and that's that. That color is there for the next thousand years.

This print is also an example of split color printing. Many times over. Certain areas get a color layer restricted to that area. A second color application is then applied to another distinct area, then printed. There is then the option of either continuing to re-coat those areas distinctly as before, or, covering both with another layer of the same color. I am doing this in the other print I'm working on, which is a reprint of The Swing, which I ruined with a single, final coat. Bad move, that. This time, after going to school on The Flute Player, I am approaching the printing in a different way, beginning the split printing earlier, and with a bit heavier mix of pigment each layer. A better explanation can be made when the print is finished.

As noted above, unintended consequences in gum printing is part of the package. There is a certain amount of predictability to the printing process, as in expectations to the color layers and how they will affect the layers below, with said predictability somewhere around 80%, give or take. There are so many potential variables involved during the course of the printing process that a perfect correlation to expectations is something close to myth. The more complex the gum print, by increasing the number of color layers applied, those variables increase, almost exponentially.

To offer a better view of the colors making up this print, for the most part, they are the basic palate of the four CYMK colors; Cyan, Yellow, Magenta & Black. The two most used colors of this print are the magenta & cyan, when combined render a brown(ish) color, the hue dependent on the mixture of each respective colors, and how often they are repeated. The two extended colors used in this print were Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna, used separately in a couple areas, as well in combination in a thin mixture for the Mime's hair. Being my wife sees the full spectrum of color (watercolor/acrylic artist), she is my eyes for when I need input on exactly what colors are showing. Lame, I know, but necessary. I fail to see red/green unless it is obvious, or right next to another adjacent color for comparison.

"Artist Gesture" is said to be the artist's 'hand' in shaping the print, how it is interpreted. This is especially true in gum printing. There are no boundaries, no fences for how a gum print is approached and printed. From sizing the paper, gum density, color choice, and density of mixture, color layer 
order, full layering or split layering, print time, float time, water temperature and several other factors shape every print. The printer must decide how to treat the print in subtle ways through the process. One such decision for me was how to treat the Mime's hands. The hands lead right up to the focal point of the image, and the Mime's white face. The final layer applied was a very sheer mixture of watercolor lamp black. Very sheer. Being the Mime is in direct sunlight, her hands, as well as her black shirt, I wanted to keep that light on both areas. This layer was printed for the zone7-8 of her fingers next to the flute. In the original image, her fingers were very brightly lit, reading zone7-8. I kept that relationship to show the brightness of the sun. But that's just me. Another printer might have interpreted the image entirely differently. That, is the beauty of gum printing.


Gum Dichromate Print
"The Flute Player" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Veneta, Oregon

Multi-layered Gum Technique

The obstacles and impediments I've been dealing with these past months have been interesting. The water leak and damage to the room from which this is written has been repaired, new floor and all. The self-inflicted wound from the miter saw, well, that was simply stupid. Two never do things for me are never work a miter saw with a rip blade unless your head is in the game, or attempt to work on a gum print, for the same reason. Both can return the same can't believe your eyes results. I sealed the deal with the above affirmations after said rip blade made contact with my thumb. The fortunate part being it was my left thumb, which one doesn't need for typing.

I had had every intention of continuing the momentum on posting results of the printmaking techniques being used to make the print posted. The persistent obstacle being the death of my printer. That should be resolved soon, relatively speaking, as it's been months since I was able to print a functional digital negative. Pain, that. I'm still looking at another two or more weeks before that resolution arrives. In the meantime, more gum printing.

I am still loathe to show an unfinished gum print, part way through the printing process, as it tends to be rather deceiving. It does show the framework of the image, yet simply won't represent where it is going or how it will look after clearing the dichromate stain. I am currently working on an image I printed from an enlarged paper negative, thirty years ago. This will be the most complex gum I ever attempted. At this stage of the process, there have been fourteen printings, using thirty applied color layers. It is shaping up well. I haven't made any errors, which is exactly why I've learned the hard way that if your head isn't in the game, do not pick that print up. If you screw up a silver or palladium print, it can be redone the same day, no problem. Mess up a gum print that you've spent six weeks working on and it becomes exponentially painful.

As noted before, there are no boundaries or fences around gum printing. It allows for a very wide spectrum of treatments to arrive at the finished image. I have a gum print with two color layers that worked quite well, also printed from an enlarged paper negative. It was printed as duo-tone, using black gouache as the first coat then a second thin layer using a burnt umber to add the warmth to the image. The image was a conductor standing next to a passenger car of an historic train. That image, and the one I am currently working on demonstrate the wide range of possibilities of gum printing.

It also demonstrates another, more subtle difference between the two techniques. The fewer color layers applied, the more pigment is needed in each applied layer to end up with a fully replicated image. The trade off being the finer details of an image. Fewer, more pigmented coats do make an image, but applying sheerer layers of color, which necessitates many more layers, brings out far more textural detail in the image, more like photo realism. Going with this technique, however, demands strict registration of the negative to print. Without that, multi-layer gum printing doesn't work so well.

Gum Revisited ~ "The Old Jerome Hotel"

Being I am stuck in the middle of the stream with the digital negatives. I continue to print in gum. The last post was an update on the current gum print "The Flute Player". This post is a revisited look at the first gum print I made recently, after finishing the new darkroom. A second look at the image might offer up a bit of insight into the application of color to local areas. In some cases this is due to the printer's whim, other times it has more to do with handling an area of the print image in a predictable way.

This print image had a large contiguous area (sky) that I wanted to end up somewhere in the sky blue range, using several color layers along the way to better define that area, while leaving it a specific color range. There are four color layers representing the sky, with a cyan run on top. The distant hills and closer patches and areas of natural flora, and dirt, and the task was to separate those areas by enhancing their color layers to a specific scheme. There was living greenery to consider, hopefully ending up greenish, and ground/dirt areas, some in the shade, others in the distance where the afternoon sun is evident. Each of those areas got specific color mixtures applied to them respectively. The first four print layers were KGYC, in that order, then the color region applications began. I stray outside the four basic CYMK colors from time to time for specific applications, like using Yellow Ochre in the background areas I wanted to appear to be in late afternoon sun. Or stacking a bit thicker mixture of Cadmium Yellow over live growth foliage followed by Cyan, sometimes more than once to an area.

As careful as I was attempting to be when printing this gum image, I can see several things I could do better now, and that is what I am doing with this current print, improving after each finished print. Each prints shows you something new about how things turn out, compared to what you thought you might get at the front end. When you can predict the outcome of a stack of color layers, you have arrived. I believe this gum print is nine printings, using more than sixteen separate color applications.

Each print I make, whether a Kallitype, palladium or gum print, has a Certificate of Authenticity, disclosing all details of that print. All silver or palladium print are in limited editions of 5, with one artist's proof kept by the artist. I never tire of saying that any serious photographic artist, and the operable word being "artist", is selling themselves short by selling their "art" in open editions. Any gum I print will be unique, no artist's proof, no copies. Just the finished print. And when that print turns out nicely, after several weeks of printmaking, I am going to want a hefty price for said gum prints.

"The Old Jerome Hotel"
8x10 ~ Unique

Gum Printing

It is painful to note here that the current chaos, as well as some sort of evil spirits or cyber Demons are making my life somewhere in the miserable range. The water damage chaos not withstanding, the printer I purchased off Amazon was to be a refurbished model, fully functional yada yada. Upon firing up the miserable thing, first reading on the screen is the print head is either loose or missing. This is a special Hell for me, with the old one three weeks in the shop with three new print heads ordered and tried out, all failed upon arrival. Same here.

Not that I'm whining here. There has been a pregnant gap on this blog, trying workarounds and repairs, and buying another printer, which doesn't print. I was, however, sufficiently astute as to also purchase the repair or replace warranty with said printer. The terms of which direct me to wait thirty days before I can claim the warranty. Thus, as ugly as it is, there will be another three weeks before I have a functioning printer in hand, or a replacement on its way. I will eventually prevail, irritating as that still seems at this time. I did make a new negative after I finally got the printer to communicate with the old print head. That will be a print test tomorrow. If it is worth posting, it will be done.

The down time for the digital negatives hasn't been completely wasted time. I have continued to print many more layers on my favorite gum subject, The Flute Player. I have posted that image in the past, a first test print last year. I have since cropped the image about 20% off the top & right side of the image. A much stronger view of the subject within context, yet not enough to distract from the Mime playing the flute.

Today's printing was the thirteenth printing of this gum, all but the four original print layers, each subsequent printing has had more than one color applied, each color locally applied. For printing a gum from a single black & white negative this technique is one of the most useful of all printing variables available gum printing. The process functions using subtractive color theory, something a watercolor artist understands directly. As I have mentioned more than once, a gum print is a photographic watercolor. The end 'color' of any given area is the sum of all the color layers stacked up in that spot. There are times, when eight or more color layers are stacked the summation is a sort of darker area, with somewhat indiscriminate color, although it can be said to be in some plane of the color wheel, if one actually sees all the colors.

Being a bit restricted in larger context of color, there are subtle colors I will miss until it is pointed out to me. Like that helps. Showing a gum print halfway or so through the printing is something I am hesitant to do, as it tends to be misleading in how the thing might turn out, due to the continued changes of the colors over time. One of the reasons this particular print is taking so long is because I am using very sheer, thin coats of each color, nothing like what is taught academically, or in the photo Bibles. Their instructions are to take 9ml of gum and mix a 1/2" of pigment, then of course mix that with equal parts dichromate. 1/2". It is also taught that float times run from thirty minutes to hours. Both of which seem extremely bizarre to me.

To evenly coat an 8x10 print area with gum, I use 2ml gum solution and 2ml of saturated dichromate (13% solution) I also use an 1 1/2" wide artist's brush for larger areas and make sure the coating is brushed out to a very thin layer, smooth and contiguous. For more local applications or small areas I have different smaller brushes that do their job well. The other part of the coating calculus is the gum/pigment mixture. I say a coating is sheer and thin. The thin part is explained above. The sheer part is the gum/pigment mixture. I keep a stubby artist's brush (plastic handle) around just for this purpose. The task is taking the small plastic end and dabbing a very small amount of watercolor pigment, literally a tiny dab of pigment, then begin mixing that thoroughly into the gum. I use a one ounce pill dispenser. They can be obtained at any pharmacy. I also bought a pack of 100 of them off the internet for $5.

I use the plastic brush end to mix the pigment, then pull it up the side of the container and watch it slide down. What I am looking for, usually, is how easy it is to see through the mixture. I want to be able to see through the color, yet for the most part, want it just thick enough to show the color well. You would not be able to see through a mixture of gum using a 1/2" strip of pigment in 9ml of gum, especially the premixed gum which is 14 Baum. Not very thick. If you can't see through the gum/color mix, then you obviously wouldn't be able to see through it once it has been printed onto the paper. That defeats the entire purpose of multiple layer gum printing. If the purpose is to make a gum print with one color layer, that might be an approach, although I have my doubts, as there would be absolutely no detail or texture of any kind.

I promise I will be posting this gum print as soon as it is done. If I could predict when that might possibly be, after seeing the printed layer today, the print is at the point that there remains three areas that will receive the final coats, to enrich those areas respectively with their own color stacking, to arrive at different color schemes. This print has had thirteen printings, with twenty-two distinctive colors applied total. The print is shaping up nicely. Six weeks and counting.