Jars in the Window ~ Final Coat ~ Split color

A Christmas gift to myself, is to have finished this gum print. A gum print is designed, all through the printing series. The final image is a reflection of decisions made along the way, the choice of color(s) to use, each layer, how thick, how shear, where to apply, how many layers and in which order, how long to print, how long to float.... Making a gum print is like directing a score, keeping everyone working as a unit, and in harmony.

Overall, I am quite happy with the final print. In spite of the color problems, which I am unable to see. Even now, the wood appears a sort of neutral grayish brown to my eye. My artist wife tells me I am looking at plum and pink. Alright, I accept that. Can't help that, but I can have said color seeing wife sign off on the photos of the prints I shoot to post here. I have corrected that, I believe. The colors are what they are. I had no exact color in mind when printing. What I had hoped for was for more than one color showing up throughout the image. What I am more happy with is the light in the scene. The light outside that window was at least five stops above the interior, so the task was preserving that relationship of light on both sides of the window. It was in printing this image, with this particular obstacle to overcome that brought up the flash of insight into printing the light. I believe this gum captures that light.

Every gum printer will have their own style of printing, simply because copying a gum is a fool's errand, unless it in a lab using strict scientific measurements and timing. That's a scientific experiment, what I want to do is art. The art part simply referring to one's personally developed style, and in gum printing, that shows up big time. So, one thing I can imagine is viewers reactions to my gums, with the wild colors. It is a photographic watercolor, partially watercolor rules apply. What came through in the print was the light quality and textural detail. If I could see color I'd be on a roll.

"Jars in the Window" ~ Final Print ~ Unique

Jars in the Window ~ 10th Print Layer ~ split color

I had hoped to see this print complete after this print run. The print is finished when the printer is  satisfied, or, a mistake has been made. It will be notices that the overall color below the window is different, more neutral (less blue) than the wood area above and to the right of the window. This wasn't happenstance. I directed it with subsequent additions of color during each printing to enhance and strengthen areas that needed it to my eye.

Black was added to the wood outside the window, as well as the outside window frame. A light yellowish color remains on that area, as that is the dichromate stain, which will be reduced considerably, leaving a more neutral color that will appear as detail when it's done. I also added a shear layer of Cadmium Yellow over the jars and their lids to pull out more color to that area, shifting it towards a more natural color for a jar with peaches. The final touch of color will be added to the foliage in the background, still light, and not separated from the roof line.

Jars in the Window ~ 10th print layer

Jars in the Window ~ 9th color layer ~ Split color

* Correction; This print layer is the 9th print layer, the second printing using a split color application. The sixth printing layer got lost when posted as the seventh. 

This printing was to take care of two areas outside the window, the foliage on the left, and top of the image area, and secondly, the edge of the house outside, which was a turquoise color.  Once the print has fully dried down a final judgement will be made on the foliage. That area is in bright sunshine and I want to leave that effect. The side of the house has a slight cyan(ish) tone to it, which actually works, representing faded house paint. The final area to be handles is the whites, f the fascia board along the roof and the window frame that remains almost blank white. I also want to strengthen the black tar that has run down over the fascia board. A final touch to the image may be to make a thin, shear mix of Cadmium Yellow to brush over the jar with the peaches in it, and the gold colored bands.

The print image as seen here was copied before it was fully dried down and pressed flat. Multiple layers of dried gum, each of different thicknesses in different areas, begins creating highs & lows in the paper, between those densities. One of the reasons I use Arches hot press watercolor paper is because it holds up well to this repeated layering and soaking. It is this effect that makes the bottom of the image in the darker area to appear streaked. The light reflected off the highs & lows. The finished print will have been cleared of the yellow dichromate stain and pressed flat after dry down.

Jars in the Window ~ 9th coat ~ Split Color

Jars in the Window ~ 9th Coat ~ Split Color Coating

I am now working on specific areas of the image. Today's printing was with two colors; lamp black and Hooker's Green. The black wasn't a thick mixture, but was used for enhancing areas which have yet to begin printing in. One area needing this was the window seal frame, the outside area of window frame that was still blank white, as well as the area of the house not yet printed in. The focus was printing down those areas, respectively. The house, outer wall shingling, fascia board (with black tar) and window framing received the black coating. It wasn't a thick coating, but one that still showed light through the mixture. I also brushed a thin layer of black over some of the shadow areas below the window, and to the right of the window, adding a bit of depth to the image, as well as smooth out any blotching that was showing up from earlier removal.

The Hooker's Green can be seen mostly in the foliage to the left of the house, with the hottest spot in the image being that area above the roof line, which remains almost blank white. That area will get a special printing in, due to the added print time needed to make that so. The next printing will see more printing down of that outside area. The inside area is now finished. The window frame glass will get another coating to bring in the reflective elements. I will likely use the Hooker's Green for that layer as that would be the expected reflected color, with heavy foliage outside said window. The house wall is a soft turquoise. The framing is white.

I have taken the pains to show how each printing layer alters the image as it moves along. The more important aspect of gum printing is the print time/float time, for controlling the image as the printing proceeds. Mix the colors in accordance with their translucent properties with other colors, and print to the light. Extra attention to detail adds further depth and beauty to the print image, such as adding a light coat of Yellow over the jar with the peaches, green to the other jar. Such additive qualities brings out elements in the image, by separating tonal values and adding further color. The yellow dichromate stain remains in the image, and that will be cleared when the print is done.

Jars in the Window ~ 9th Print Layer ~ Split color

Jars in the Window ~ 8th Coat

The final full coating has been applied, using cyan. That is because it is the triad of color I've been using to build up the textural detail, each layer; Magenta, Yellow, Cyan. The K or black layer began the printing process, laying out the overall structure of the image and setting up the blacks. The shift away from yellowish, to bluish is visible, as well as a bit more detail in the wood and brick of the foreground. The window frame is also at zone 7, ranging from lighter to darker, from bottom to top respectively.

The next color layers will be applied locally to specific areas. I will use a Hooker's Green or Forest Green for the foliage, Turquoise mix for the house wall, which is what it was, black on the facia board tar run under the roof. The print time will be increased about five minutes to print down that dense (in the negative) area. The temperature of the float bath has been around 65 degrees so far, leaving me a lot of room for floating off overprinted gum. It was necessary to do this for this layer, in the lower and darker area of the interior foreground, the wood, brick and cement counter top. I merely slid the print in 90 degree water gently, moving side to side then down to the lower area and back. That removed a bit more blue that hadn't floated off with the color in the highlight area. Local manipulation in the gentle sense, using warmer water, but not yet demanding brush work to further the removal of more gum. There are a number of natural tools at hand for a gum printer.

What is left to do after the full printing is clearing in a bisulfate bath which clears the yellow dichromate stain, which would amount to about a 1/4 to 1/2 shade of yellow less. The detail outside the window continues to fill in. The print time will now increase for those high densities.

Jars in the Window ~ 8th Print layer

Jars in the Window 7th Coat

The print count is off by one, not taking into account the first black layer, thus this last print layer is the 7th color print layer, which was Cadmium Yellow. My standard. This layer was intended on preparing the backdrop for a Cyan layer, printed for the outside of the window. It is these two layers that will better define that area in general. The task is using just enough Cyan to create a translucent effect over Yellow, which shifts the color to variations of green, from middle green to turquoise green.

The print time now increases to match the full range of densities in the window area. Like the inside, the outside has a full tonal range of densities. Even now the deeper shadow area in the foliage area shows up as black, which is right next to areas at four stops beyond that, which have to be printed down, without losing the area that need to remain white, like the window frame. Printing to light, technically that means printing to a tonal range, white, just like when developing a negative. It begins at the blacks with each successive density twice the previous, in a logarithmic stepped scale. A predictable scale. The Dictum is "shoot for the shadows & develop for the highlights". In gum printing, you begin with the structure of the shadows and print for the highlights, controlled by print time/float time.

This color layer was fairly thick, at the point of becoming almost opaque. I wanted the yellow influence to overtake the magenta layer beneath, leaving the color that will mix with the next layer of cyan, to shift the primary color in the window area to greenish as I indicated earlier. That cyan layer becomes the final overall layer of the image. The foreground, the inside area, will be complete, needing nor more layering for its full effect. Once the outside area is a bit more detailed by adding more print time on this new layer, the detail and the green color then becomes permanent, what survives the floating.

Up until now, I have used cold tap water at around 69 F, with that dropping a bit further as the outside temperature decreases. That allows me to increase the water temperature by up to twenty degrees for floating away resistant gum that is wanted gone. A lot of leeway, so I can add several more minutes print time, adjusting to the new density area. That area, hopefully, will have a full tonal range from zone 1 thru zone 7, matching the zone 7 I'm working on to keep intact along the window frame, as it is now. What is becoming more evident is the detail around the edge of the window frame showing up now.

As can be seen, the color shift is back to Yellow, part of which is the dichromate stain. If a bit of yellow is reduced in the darker darker areas it would also reduce the more evident yellow of the open window area. The cyan layer will shift this to greenish, and if I can hold the light right at the zone seven point on the window frame, while printing down the pure white areas outside the window I will arrive at what I want. That means the next cyan layer has to be printed the same as the yellow layer, to stop at the (white) area of the frame. After that layer, only the area outside the window gets any color, and then, printed down to the necessary level by increasing the print time.

Jars in the Window ~ 7th Print Color Layer ~ Cadmium Yellow

Jars in the Window 5th Coat

For those actually following along with the print layering of this gum print, you will notice the subtle differences with each new layer, and I'm pretty sure you are seeing far more of the colors than I, being I don't see red/green for the most part. That of course makes it a bit trickier to make a multi-layered gum print using color pigments. A lot of theory goes into the task. Having shown each layer for the first five layers, I will begin showing photos of the progress when there is sufficient to be noteworthy for the printing process. One of the problems with shooting a gum print that hasn't fully dried and shrank back to flat again is the light reflects off the print differently on the highs and lows, leaving streaking in the image. Not the original image. Also it takes a long time to dry down a freshly floated gum print. Each newly added layers increases the density of the part of the image that needs to dry down, taking more time as printing proceeds.

As a gum printer I would tell you that the obstacle to overcome was the difference in lighting in the image, with the area outside the window at least five stops higher than the foreground of the inside. That had to be bridged to continue printing the overall image as one unit that actually works. The primary goal of each layer is printing to the edge of the light. Once that has been printed down, it's gone and can't be un-gone. At this point in the process the spectral light can be seen in the reflection on the wood wall behind the jars, and the window frame. The window frame is now at the desired zone 7, right at the breaking point of losing the light off the white. The window panes and the area outside the window can be seen filling in a bit more with detail. There are two more full color layers to come for the overall  image; Yellow then Cyan. This will  make the second pass of those colors, which make up the primary range of color that can be applied.

The following two coats have to do two things. Be at the right mixture to continue adding to the detail of the foreground, and not be printed beyond zone 7. Those two things will mean the area outside the window will be further filled in with detail, and a bit of color. It is as that point the the foreground of the image will basically be finished, and I will do any further printing strictly on the window area, hand coating color onto areas that will enhance them, like various colors of green, like Hooker's Green, applied by a small brush on just the leaves of the Oleander bush, black on the tar spilling onto the fascia board at the roof line, and the house underneath. There may be added layering to the window panes, just slightly to increase the reflective detail in them.

This is why gum prints take so  long. They are photographic watercolors that can be manipulated in infinite ways. And that, is the beauty of this process, it is the most difficult to learn simply because there are so many possibilities. The actual process can be taught easily enough, if one knows what it is that controls the printing process. Few do. There are the wet/dry areas to the lower portion of the print, the bottom is the last to dry, leaving what looks like streaks in the darker areas. Reflective light, as the surface of a gum print is shiny. The next example will be after the next two coats, which finished up the foreground area, when the 'specialty' coating begins. Going through the posted images the progress can be seen, in color shifts and more detail along the way. More to come.

Jars in the Window ~ Fifth Coating ~ Cyan

Jars in the Window 4th Coat

The addition of the last color layer, continues the direction I'm headed with the print. This fourth color layer is Cyan, the first of the CYMK colors, although not printed in that order. My biggest weakness is seeing colors. Being nearly color blind to red/green, making gum prints using colors might seem counter intuitive, and for a logical person, would be. Making gum prints takes some logical analysis for print direction of each image, however, I would tell you that gum printing isn't a cognitive exercise, which covers pretty much the spectrum of Art in general. Art is a personal expression using an artistic medium. I use photography to make photographic watercolors.

I was forced to use a corrective technique for removing unwanted gum from the print, without destroying the print of course. When I pulled the  print off the surface of the water after floating, the pigmented gum flows off the print, in proportion to the amount of gum that has yet to be hardened in some degree. That happened on this print, with the blue layer draining down towards the bottom of the print, leaving a streak where it covered an area that shouldn't have gotten that run off layer. Hence the removal by heating the water to near 100 degrees and using a fairly stiff artist's brush to work that area and hopefully remove sufficient cyan pigmented gum off the surface area in the image. For the most part, that worked. The remnant of this will decrease with further layers that will even out the color differences in the end.

What can be seen at this time is the continued filling in of detail in the foreground and more detail outside the window, with the window frame now roughly zone 7, which is where that will remain. What I'm after now is filling in the flora outside the window as well as the house and roof line. What I am being careful not to lose is the spectral light, shown on the window frame and back wall behind the jars. That is the light that can be captured with correct printing/floating. Also keep in mind that the Yellow stain of the dichromate is still visible. That will be cleared after the printing if finished.

Jars in the Window ~ Fourth color layer ~ Cyan

Jars in the Window ~ Third Layer

The first two layers were used to define the image area, with the first coat, then bringing in the off the chart density area of the open window, with the second coat. The second being magenta, a natural first color for background. This third layer, using Yellow, will shift the magenta to an orange(ish) color, mostly in the highlight area outside the window. The foreground will continue to fill in the details each applied coat, also darkening the shadowed areas.

This Yellow layer was applied all over the image, with the yellow mixture just shy of opacity. This layer will influence the next layer of Cyan, shifting the foreground color to a more warm toned brownish color and the area outside the window will shift green, and being there is mostly Oleander bush as backdrop, the green will work well. It is at this juncture of the printing that decisions have to be made, about the final applications, where the image is to go. There is only so much theory that can be predictable, as there are so many intervening variables during each coating, each printing and floating, specific predictions of outcome is simply silly.

What is coming along is the added detail of each layer. I am working with mixtures that are transparent, allowing for further depth and textural detail, without losing the spectral light, or the glow of the image from the window light. I am photographing the print before it is completely dry, thereby leaving the warped light in the foreground, light and dark streaks. That is the curl of the paper before being pressed when dry. Note the added texture in the window area and outside, as well as to the wood backdrop behind the jars. Each layer adds a little more to the final image.

3rd color layer; Jars in the Window

Gum Print Layering ~ Jars in the Window

I decided against posting a photo of the base layer of the new gum print. With exceptions, pretty much any image chosen for a multi-layered gum print, using a single b&w negative, presents its own obstacles to the printing. This is why gum printing remains the most difficult medium to work with. There is no "this is the way you make a gum print". There is a process, beyond the sense of using gum Arabic (Acacia) and a dichromate in equal proportions, laying it on paper with a negative on top and put some UV light to it. That's the process. Try applying it without knowing the underlying controls and you end up with color blobs on said paper.

Something I want to also address is the dichromate part of this process. The original method of gum printing used a bichromate as the sensitizer. For the past century, or so, dichromate has replaced this, being faster than the original form of bichromate. There are two base forms of dichromate; ammonia dichromate and potassium dichromate. I have always used the latter form, although the former is a bit faster, more light sensitive, than the former. Both can be bought today. The dichromate solution I use is 13%, which is saturated at that point. The ammonium dichromate is mixed to 25%, hence, more sensitive.

The obstacle to overcome in this print image is the window area, which is about three to four full stops beyond the foreground, in any photographic medium that a good amount to deal with in printing. There were two avenues open to me to bridge the two areas for further printing. The first one was a second layer of lamp black just in the now nearly blank white area where the window area is. One drawback to that direction is perfectly laying on the gum without crossing any of the visible areas of the image, which would then create a black line after printing.

I chose the second avenue that arrived just moments after running through the original idea. This method was simply to fully coat the image with the next color up, then print the entire image down to accommodate the higher density range, leaving that color as the base color, and of course all the densities below it. I mixed magenta just thick enough for a near opaque color layer and left a nice thin even coat over the image, then printed the window area as zone 7, enough time for 2-3 minutes of floating to leave the window area at zone 7, or just breaking thereof.

What that leaves is a full scale print, from zone 1 black to zone 7 white, on the white window frame, when finished. I am also being careful not to print down the spectral density, or the glow of the light in the room. That light floats between zone 7 & zone 6. Knowing your print times of any given negative image is oh so important. No different than not knowing the developing time of your negatives. Makes a big difference, in time and temperature. Those rules apply here and overlay the gum printing process pretty much exactly. When one tonal zone is done, any tonal zone before it has become permanent, and can't be altered with normal treatment afterwards. With negatives, once zone 5, or middle gray has been developed, zones 1-4 are permanent and no amount of time in the developer can change it. In gum printing, once a tonal area has been hardened by the UV light, no amount of floating will change that, or remove any more of the gum without physical manipulation, life a stiff brush or other removal tool. Once the gum has hardened, it's impervious to moisture and will last as long as the paper holding it, which has been judged to be 1000 years.

One of the reasons I am firmly against academic classes for classical printing such as gum, is that those teaching said class simply do not understand the process and certainly have never employed it. I see instructions for gum printing with print times assigned to a color, or floating a print for hours, or washing the gum print afterwards. Things one can only shake their head at and wonder what the students take away with such nonsense.

This is the second coat of gum; magenta. I use the flexible one ounce pill dispenser cups to mix the pigment into the gum, just enough color to still be able to see light through the color after mixing. This also is important. When layering the gum, to be able to see through all the colors to the base layer, adding up to the fuller image, each layer must be shear enough to be able to see through. Actually, this one is common sense. If you have ever seen or done Decoupage, you will understand the depth an image gets with increased layers of clear coat, in this case, shear layers of color stacked to make an image. A photographic watercolor.

At this point in the image, the basic texture of the wood paneling of the scene is just beginning to show up, as are the shadows. The window, and outside area is now within the tonal range of the foreground. Each subsequent layer will now be printed to that window frame, which makes up zone 7, or white with full texture. That's the goal of this printing. Now, each layer will require sufficient pigment to add further depth and texture to the image, without blocking what's already there. If I don't screw this one up it will likely be my best gum yet. I would estimate this image will need close to ten print layers to complete, bringing all the values into their correct relation to the larger image. The material in the lower foreground  is brick and wood, as is the wall on the right side, all good for textural quality. That's the task.

Gum Dichromate Print
"Jars in the Window"   ~
Second coating; #1 watercolor lamp black ~ #2 magenta

New Gum Print Beginning

Along with the testing for platinum/palladium printing I just began, I also have two newly prepared sheets of paper for gum printing. It has been since June when I finished the last gum print, The Swing. I did begin this same print a few months ago, trying out a different sizing routine. I have often wondered if there was a real difference between two coats of 2 1/2% gelatin sizing and one coat of 5% gelatin sizing. Yes, there is. And I don't like it. Didn't like it thirty years ago either.

With fresh printing sheets on hand I got the negative & paper in registration and applied the first coat, using watercolor lamp black. The negative is slightly thinner than I prefer, as the print time is under 10 minutes. With a float time around 2-3 minutes a six minute print time holds to zone 7. That just means more care taken for each layer to get the color up to the textural zone I want to hold, after floating. At this time, theoretically, the print time is round 30-45 seconds per tonal range. Give or take on the float time, and water temperature.

The first coat came out well, floated for over five minutes to bring down the black to where it belonged. The print is titled "Jars in the Window", with two ball jars in a nook near a window, which is open, and the densities outside that window are very much higher than inside. Most of the image of the outside of that window floated off, being the high densities in that area. To connect the two areas I will apply a second coat of lamp black, only to that window area of high density. I will then print that down and float the image only to a textural range of zone 6 & 7, or just slightly below. Then, the two areas will be in normal printing range of each other and the colors will then be added layer at a time, and printed to the tonal range chosen for that color.

When the print dries down I will take a snap and post it for a sample of what that print image might look like. I might even show each print layer as it is applied for further example of how a gum print goes together, layer at a time. What you end up with is a photographic watercolor. Stay tuned.