First Gum Layer over Palladium ~ "The Fiddlers"

A good deal  of thought went into how I intended on structuring the gum layers on this image. There are so many potential treatments. What I want out of this image is replicating the warm sunny day I shot these images, late afternoon sun with that warm glow on subjects. My choice for first coat is the color of warm sunshine; Yellow Ochre. Wielding colors on a printed palladium image can get so much wilder than one can get away with layering a gum only print. The Yellow Ochre mixture was thick, to the point the gum becomes almost opaque to light from the backside, looking through the mix swirled up on the side of a clear plastic vessel.

The 'yellow' effect of the image, especially after a layer of Yellow Ochre, will fade to approximately half of what is seen at this point, the other half and more obvious part of the yellow, is the dichromate stain, which is of course yellow. The print is cleared in a 5% solution of sodium bisulfite when the print is finished. Not much can be noted at this time with exception to the warming effect the color layer sets up. Next up will be a sheer layer of Ultramarine Blue, which itself is the sheerest form of blue watercolors. That will be applied mostly to the background foliage and perhaps even sheerer in a few areas of the grasses. That will shift the yellow(ish) color to green(ish), all depending on how sheer and where applied, also time floated. Those being the control variables of gum printing.

Layer #1 ~ Yellow Ochre
"The Fiddlers"