"Discovery" ~ Gum over Palladium

This gum over palladium print nearly completes the portfolio on people that I intend to print. There will be ten prints in that portfolio. The second portfolio has of course already begun with the two prints I've posted in the past weeks. I have caught an error in some of my postings that is regrettable. When listing the conditions of a print, in the form of developer used, paper and the like, it is important to get things right. I believe in some of the posts on gum over palladium prints I listed the paper as Revere Platinum. If I did that it should have been Hahnemühle Paper. All my gum over printing is done on Hahnemühle paper.

I didn't photograph each layer of this gum simply because I have been doing so for a number of gum over print images to demonstrate "technique", over "process". Process is the framework for how things work, technique is how all the variables of that process can be manipulated to end up with a print image that was pre-visualized and intended throughout the printing, arriving at the printer's version of how they wanted the scene should look. In gum printing, those variations are limitless. Gum printing is the most versatile and personal of all the photographic printing processes. No other medium process allows the variety of directions a printer can take, with the only 'ending', simply knowing to when to stop.

As all the other gum over prints, this one  is printed on Hahnemühle paper, pre-shrunk. There are six print layers of gum over the base palladium print. Several were split color runs, mostly to emphasize a color or separate it from another. I also altered the color palate somewhat, using colors I have never used, in color ranges I can't full see. An example of that is the boy's jumpsuit. My normal inclination would have been to use blue, as in denim, as I've done in the past, where it fit the setting. I wanted to do something different here. I shifted to earth tones using burnt sienna as the base color for the boy's jumpsuit, instead of phthalo blue. I also had to emphasize the values of the larger goose to separate it from the surroundings which were of the same tonal value. Here, the normal tonal separation of black and white differs. The tones here, blend. Several layers of earth toned colors to enhance the goose it began to separate from the greenery surrounding it.

The focal point of the image is the connection between the boy and the goose. That was my intent upon setting out, using colors I mostly can't actually see. As always, another really fine adventure in printing. Gum printing utilizes subtractive color theory, exactly the same as used in watercolor painting. Being my wife is an excellent watercolor artist I learned a number of subtle things about that subject and have been applying them in my printing.

Gum over Palladium ~ six gum print layers, six colors
Hahnemühle paper (pre-shrunk) ~ Sodium Citrate developer
"Discovery" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Geneva, Illinois ~ 2016

"Girl with Horse" ~ Final Print

The sixth and final color layer was added as an enhancement for the areas of the image that have direct bright sunshine on it. The final color was quinacridone gold, mixed very sheer and laid on thinly to those higher tones. The intent of this application is simply to infer the sunshine reflecting off the different textures.

The purpose of step by step, layer after layer posting was to give those taking the time to read the material an insight into how the process is done, and how technique by the printer shapes the image, layer upon layer, until the printer's "gesture" can be clearly seen in the final print. After several examples of this process I will be posting the final print image and discussing it. The amount of time it takes to photography and track each print layer is very time consuming. The third book in the "Alchemist's Guide;" series is finished and in final stages of layout before being uploaded and listed. I will soon begin the work on the fourth book of the series on Palladium printing, with a section on the Na2 platinum/palladium process. There simply won't be time to photograph each layer and write on it and keep up with the printing schedule and writing.

I can even see that the photo of the print image falls far short of representing the actual print and the colors therein. My apologies for this lack of color perception in the transition.

Gum over Palladium Print ~ digital negative
Sodium Citrate ~ Hahnemühle Paper (pre-shrunk)
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Willamette National Forest, Oregon

Girl with Horse ~ Layer 5

I am told by my color guru that the background area with trees is simply not visibly green. More knowledge of subtle color issues, being, the lower tonal ranges, say from zone 4 down, don't show color as much as the upper three tonal ranges, using the same color mixture. The deeper tones need much more pigment to make them that color. The print Tammy's Rose has proven that out. The comments returned from viewing that image is that the print tones were muted, basically neutral in the background. And here I thought I was seeing green. Such is color blindness to red/green.

This print run was focused on strengthening the darker background area with the trees, especially the foliage lighted by direct sunlight, showing as highlights to the surrounding area. I believe I have accomplished that. The rest of the print is where I had intended. The girl's denim shirt and jeans look like worn denim and the lighter grasses in the sunshine, when the dichromate stain is removed, will remain the yellowish color they naturally are at that time of year. The overall color arrangement, as well as the brilliance of the sunshine is left, which was the object of the printing.

I photographed the print just before it was fully dry. The slight wrinkling of the paper shows a streak left from the shine of light across that area in the background. Not in the print.

Gum over Palladium ~ Gum Layer 5 ~ Hooker's Green mixed with Cadmium Yellow
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10

Girl with Horse ~ Gum Layer 4

This print layer is the last of the coloring layers. The print is where I had intended with the color depth of each area colored. The mid-ground got another layer of cadmium yellow to keep it in the yellow spectrum after the dichromate stain has been removed. The darker area in the background also got that yellow layer to strengthen the blacks as well as shift the blue(r) color in the trees to a definite greener look. The second color added was phthalo blue, mixed to replicate denim, applied over the girl's shirt and jeans, and the horse's shadow, to shift it to a cool tone shadow in a warm toned area.

The print is now at it's end, with exception to an embellishment that will cap the end of the printing. A very sheer mixture and thin layer of quinacridone gold will be applied to the yellow grasses, the girl's hair, and the highlighted foliage in the background. This has to be done very, very sparingly not to look like gold has been painted on the paper. The idea is the 'affect' of 'golden sunshine', not a gold color. The horse remains the brightest object in the image. It is the central focus leading to the area around it. X amount of yellow must be visually subtracted from the image for what it will look like after clearing.

Gum over Palladium ~ Gum Layer #4
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10

Girl with Horse ~ Gum Layer 3

This gum layer further separates the background from mid-ground and foreground, with a layer of phthalo blue over the background of forest flora, and shadow of the horse. This was also layered over the girl's shirt and jeans. The second color used in this split color application was raw umber. This was mixed just as it reached brown from the more golden color when mixed sheer. This was layered over the fallen trees in the mid-ground as well as on the girl's hair, and the horses halter & hooves.

Splitting the scene with warm mid-ground and cool background sets up the separation in the scene I was after. I use this technique often, separating tonal ranges using opposite colors, which according to the color wheel are complimentary colors. I'm game. For me, printing colors is a most interesting process utilizing subtractive color theory, and lots and lots of practice to arrive at images that work out. It's a mystery.

At this stage this separation can be seen. What must be considered is the subtraction of X-amount of yellow (dichromate stain) which will be removed (subtracted) when the print is finished. To do that now demands some practice time to grasp how this shift affects the layers of color stacked together.

Gum over Palladium ~ Gum Layer 3
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10

Girl with Horse ~ Gum Layer 2

This second gum layer was a mixture of Cadmium Yellow, added to deepen the darker background area, and add yellow to the middle tones of the foliage, as well as a good underlying yellow color to the lighter grasses in the mid-ground. The horse got nothing, as it will become ever more prominent as the print progresses. The girl's hair also got a dab of yellow to add a bit more warm color.

The layering technique changes from print to print, with each image as each image brings its own particular needs, all depending on how the image is perceived by the printer and where the printer decides to go with things. Which colors to use, mixed in potentially endless ways and opacities, layered in what order are some of the choices made by the printer, for every applied layer. There is no such thing as a standard process for gum printing. Gum printing is nothing like printing in silver or palladium, or any other hand coated process. A gum print is a photographic watercolor. There are no rules in watercolor painting. There is only technique as in gum printing.

Gum Layer 2 ~ digital negative
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10

Girl with Horse ~ Gum Layer 1

As can be readily ascertained with this print layer is the process I employ for applying gum layers, and how that turns out. That is my process. There are infinite potential ways to do this process, and each would be legitimate, if, the outcome is as the printer had intended, as previsualized. My personal approach to the printing, as noted on more than one occasion, has to do with capturing and holding the light elements in the setting or scene. Capturing the light. The coloring is secondary and should only been seen by the affect the colors have overall in the print image. That is my interpretation.

The first color layer I use for settings with high intensity sunlight, is yellow ochre. This color sets up the rest of the colors to come. The idea is showing off light, which would be seen in the yellow(ish) spectrum, reflecting of the different textures in the image, as well as defining areas where there is direct light, as in the background of this image where the sun has reached the forest floor, through the tall Douglas Fir stand. That helps separate tonalities and adds depth to the image. The foreground is light grasses. Greens and blues will be added on top of the yellow ochre to convert into shades and tones of green in the end.

Gum layer #1 ~ Yellow Ochre
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10

Girl with Horse ~ Base Palladium Print

New gum over print begun, this layer is the base palladium layer. This photograph was taken in the early '80's while I was filming along the Willamette River, near a stand of Douglas Firs. This young girl was grazing her horse near where I had set up my Century Graflex 6x9, where I had been looking at the fallen trees in the area. I was using a slow film on a very brightly lit scene, developing in a hot developer at the time. The girl was interested in what I was doing and asked me a number of questions. I asked her if she would like to have a photograph of her with her horse, which she readily agreed to.


Base Print Image ~ Palladium Print
"Girl with Horse" ~ 8x10

"The Artist" ~ Final Print

The final touch of color in this print was quinacridone gold, a color I use often when it is possible to show what light does to a subject in the scene. As my other prints I don't often do a full over gum layer when printing. I separate sections of the image using either color or tonal range differences, reflecting what the light is doing. In this image the primary colors are apparent on the top right and along the bottom, leaving the center area between them almost neutral. I could have used a full over bum layer color application in this scene, leaving the center area a more 'golden' look to it, but for me, separating the two areas by leaving the brightest area between them more neutral, leaving the golden light effect on those two color areas.

The warm toned area is the wood panel behind the subject, with the clothing of the subject a cool tone. It was a gamble coloring the clothing the way I did, as I applied phthalo blue over a yellow ochre, then gold over that. As best as I can perceive, what is left in the print is a pale, worn looking blue/blue green perhaps. The green part would evade my ability to perceive it at any rate, being nearly red/green color blind. What I see is 'warm' or 'cool' effects. Outside that, it's all printed using subtractive color theory. It's up to the viewer to determine if the subject's shirt and jeans are blue, or not.

Gum over Palladium Print ~ 4 gum print layers
Hahnemühle Paper ~ pre-shrunk
"The Artist" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Eugene, Oregon

"The Artist" ~ Gum Layer 2

This print image isn't a complex one to print. The character of the image is indirect north light from a window, a soft lit scene implicating intimacy with the subject, in their environment, with them feeling comfortable enough to lay back to be photographed. Mark was an oil painter by training, and fell in love with the gum printing I was doing at the time. He was the first photographer I showed how to make gum prints. He was a natural. The image reflects our friendship and relaxed atmosphere during this photograph. The shot was not posed. I set up my Century Graflex 6x9 on a tripod as collapsed as possible, chatting philosophy with him.

This print layer is made up of two color mixtures: Raw Umber and Phthalo Blue. The umber was a fairly sheer mix and applied only to the wood on the wall. The blue was mixed until the blue was still translucent, and laid over the subject's shirt and jeans. With the yellow dichromate stain remaining in the print the shirt and jeans look green(ish). Even my eye can see that. When that has been cleared it will leave a soft, weathered blue on the clothes. Again, I am using color to separate background from foreground, this time with the background a warm tone and the foreground (clothes) cool toned, with the mid-ground a more neutral tone separating them.

Gum over Palladium ~ Gum Layer 2 ~ Split Tone
Phthalo blue and Raw Umber
"The Artist" ~ 8x10

"The Artist" ~ Gum Layer 1

The first layer of color for this image, like several others, is Yellow Ochre. For me, a suitable base layer of color if the image is to be warm toned in the end. The secondary thought goes to end result expectations, what colors are desired where and which stack of colors arrives at that color. The shirt and jeans of the subject will get a layer of phthalo blue next, mixed to compensate for the under layer of yellow, turning the upper tones to more green(ish) and the lower tones bluer, depending on how deep the blue I mix. The break point for me is arriving at a blue that will be just at that break point where the shirt is on the border of blue & blue green. The jeans will be bluejeans when done. The warm tones on the wall will counterbalance the cool tones of his clothing.

It can also be notices that this first layer, although fairly sheer, begins adding the depth to the image, darkening the shadow area and the texture of the wood.  The print time was set to just reach zone 6, which is the bright spot on the wall beside the subject. There is no true zone 7 in the image. That was at 13 minutes, float time was 1 minute @ 65F. This just began floating away the brightest area of the wall, which had indirect lighting from a nearby window.

Gum Print Run #1~ Split Color Run
Yellow Ochre ~ Raw Umber
"The Artist" ~ 8x10

"The Artist" ~ Base Palladium Print

When I began printing again I made up two printing boards, being they are fairly simple and straight forward to make. A simple artist's clipboard for drawing, made of Masonite, and a piece of 3/16" glass a bit larger than the print to be made. Using strapping tape for the glass to board hinge, and you have a printing board, sans the registration system using punch pins. I have yet to be in a rhythm where I could work on two prints simultaneously. Being I'm working on gum layers for "Tammy's Rose" it wouldn't disrupt that rhythm to begin working on a new one.

This is one of those images taken thirty-five years ago, with only one print ever made of it, which at the time was a silver gelatin print, which hangs on my wall above my computer desk. An old friend and artist/musician, working in oils on canvas, and playing keyboard like he was born with it. I also have a very fine hand woven wool art wall hanging he made over the course of a year, by hand, using virgin wool he spun, dyed with natural flowers he ground, from flowers and a beetle for blues. Only his hands, a found stick and naturally ground pigments ever touched that wool. It remains my most coveted art pieces.

This shot was taken in Mark Pope's studio apartment, on a long afternoon of hand weaving, toking and chatting philosophy as was our practice at the time. The days before I found my Burke & James 5x7 view camera I used a Century Graflex 6cmx9cm view camera. The portraits I did at that time were all made with that camera, with exception to the one taken of "Girl with Flower" posted earlier, which was taken with a 30's model of an Argoflex twin lens. I believe it was also developed in Beutler.

Base Palladium Print ~ Hahnemühle Paper (pre-shrunk)
"The Artist" ~ 8x10

"Tammy's Rose" ~ Finished Print

The final layer, using quinacridone gold, mixed to just sunlight consistency was added to parts of the print, namely the subject's dress and hair, and the lighter grasses in the mid-ground. I thinned a small amount of that gum solution almost in half, to use over the subject's face. I also added a touch of the gold on the brightest highlights on the foliage in the background. It is unlikely that will actually be picked up in the digital copy.

I am happy with the final image, as it retains the brilliant sunshine of the setting, separating the subject from the mid-ground and background. I was able to accomplish that with the subject showing full textural detail, even in the highlights. It is usually my primary interest for the print images to capture the actual light of the setting, holding it right at the place in the scene where light can be seen, by how it reflects on the different surfaces and textures. For those that see the fuller spectrum of color you will notice the red rose being held. Something I am unable to see myself.

Gum over Palladium Print ~ 5 gum print layers
Hahnemühle Paper ~ Pre-shrunk
"Tammy's Rose" ~ 8x10 ~ Unique
Eugene, Oregon

"Tammy's Rose" ~ Gum Layer 4

This print layer was a split color application, using Raw Umber in a fairly thin mixture over the subject's dress, and a mixture of Yellow Ochre & Phthalo Blue to realize a light green laid over the darker background to strengthen it and separate it further from the mid-ground of the light colored grasses, from the subject as the highlight of the image. The background is a cool deep color with the foreground warm and brilliant with light. Rose Permanent was mixed to a good red and laid over the rose in Tammy's hands, and on a small bud on a rose branch behind her.

The objectives I had for the print have been attained, with the separation of tonal values using color and light, controlling the highlights as the focus of the image, using colors that infer and shape without being evident or gaudy. There remains the yellow dichromate stain, seen mostly on the dress. The final color layer will be quinacridone gold, mixed oh so sheer to retain the golden glow of the afternoon sunshine. The background has been strengthened and further separated from the subject as well as the dried grasses in the mid-ground. The subject in the foreground is the lightest element in the scene, with her hair right at zone 7.

Gum over Palladium ~ Layer 4 ~ Three colors
Yellow Ochre mixed with Phthalo Blue for a light green ~ Rose Permanent (for the rose)
"Tammy's Rose" 8x10

"Tammy's Rose" ~ Gum Layer 3

I took a day off. I'm old. The printing has to be flawless, and one's head has to be in the game and the focus has to be sharp. Any flaw at any time and the image is junk. This third layer was focused on the subject, mostly. Using a split color arrangement Tammy's hair and skin got a thin layer of Yellow Ochre. Her dress got a fairly thin mixture of Raw Umber, just enough to cross over from looking like a pale ochre to more like a brown when mixing in the gum. I also added the ochre over the light grasses in the foreground, separating further from the darker background, using blue/green/ochre.

This print run got a full 15 minute print time, printing for zone 7, highlights in the subject's hair as well as brilliance of the light on the dress. That I want to remain right at zone 7, and zone 6. That's the light zone. As the print progresses there is less of the overall 'yellow' look and a bit more depth, and tonal separation, with the colors at the different levels left sheer and subtle. This is a personal choice, a vision of 'how it should look', or artist's 'gesture' or 'hand' in the printing. Perhaps this is also a phase of printing for me. A way of interpreting the image. And, perhaps it also has to do with my mostly red/green color blindness which leave a far more subtle world of color than I am told exists. I see an obvious green color placard in front of me, but 100ft out I likely wouldn't, especially mixed with other similar colors or tones. I interpret the world in my prints probably the same. My primary focus is on the quality of the light.

For my efforts, if Tammy appears to be sitting on a stump in bright sunshine then the print is successful. The remaining yellowish color on the dress is mostly the remaining dichromate stain, which will be cleared when the print is finished, leaving a warm toned brown(ish) color. Theoretically. Which is how I print, using subtractive color theory. The photograph was taken of my daughter, who was my primary testing model. She got to pick the outfit I chose the spot. This one was to test a developer I had read about in an old photography book. Beutler 105. It was supposed to be a semi-compensating developer, holding in textured highlights like Pyro, leaving long skin tones like pyro, but not compensating in the lower densities. All of which I liked. This was the test shot, developing for the highlights I knew would be pushing zone 8. I still use that developer. Best overall developer ever created.

Split Color Application ~ Gum layer 3
Yellow Ochre ~ Raw Umber
"Tammy's Rose" ~ 8x10

"Tammy's Rose" ~ Gum Layer 2

Because of the color combinations I want to use, along with the differences in the tonal range between subject and background I am working with the background this layer, using split colors. The deeper background will be a blue/green when it's done. The rose branches right behind the subject will be green. I will further separate that backdrop by coating the lighter part where the dried grass is. Next layer will be focused on the subject, then further enhancements may come.

For those that see the full spectrum, you will be able to see the subtle green in the rose bush and blue/green of the distant background.  There remains the yellow dichromate stain.

Gum over Palladium ~ Layer 2 ~ Split color
"Tammy's Rose"

Tammy's Rose ~ Gum Layer 1

For me, the go to color to replicate direct sunshine on an object is Yellow Ochre. It warms the print image overall, as well as sets up the base color for successive colors, in this case, as was the last, that was mostly foliage. That allows for different color options to come depending on how the image is to be interpreted, influenced. The image I have in mind is a warm toned image with the subject displaying the brilliant sunshine that was the condition when photographed.

The highlights of the image, the subject's hair and dress remain right at the edge of zone 7, leaving the reflective brilliance of the sunlight still evident overall. I am printing right to zone 7 for this color layer, keeping the color showing at that tonal range, as golden light. That will be enhanced on the final layer. Following layers will focus on the subject's dress and the background foliage, layered separately using different colors. Some of the yellowish color is the dichromate stain.

Gum Layer 1 ~ Yellow Ochre
"Tammy's Rose"

"Tammy's Rose" ~ Gum over Palladium ~ Base Print

I have begun printing again, after a family visit and holiday expectations. One test strip verified the density range of the negative was spot on, and the base print to follow turned out as desired. I also have learned some additional subtle influences of palladium toner having to do with solution %. As I noted in an earlier post, reducing the % solution of palladium tends to warm the print image. That would be a reduction from a stock solution of  (Pd) 5ml to 1000ml DH2O ~ reduced to half that or less. Simply accomplished by adding more DH2O. I tend to mix 20ml (stock) with 30ml DH2O for a warmer tone. Also know that that the % solution also controls how much bleach back there is on the print image. The stronger % the more bleach back. Being a top down toner, this bleaching affect is first seen in the highlights, moving down the tonal values over time. The point of control for this is print time, to set up the right tonal scale before toning.

This photograph was taken circa 1984, for a developer test. I was learning photo chemistry at the time and had already begun mixing my own developers and other baths. This was a test for a non-M/Q developer; Beutler 105, which for me, remains one of the best developers ever created. It is a semi-compensating developer, with the compensation affecting highlights but not shadows, as pyro would, being a fully compensating developer. What I was after was full control of zone 7, holding what would otherwise run into zone 8, without texture. This was the shot that showed me it could be done. The image is of my daughter, Tammy, with the light blonde hair in full sunlight.

This is the base image that I will begin applying gum over. As the other gum over palladium prints, this is printed on pre-shrunk Hahnemühle paper, which is a very fine printing paper for this technique, with the multi-wet processing runs. The palladium print was made as a Kallitype, developed in sodium citrate, toned in palladium. Hence the 'poor man's palladium'. I do also print in palladium, and platinum/palladium (Na2), but find this combination to be more controllable for print color and tonal range. The most important element of the print is holding the subject's hair and dress just reaching zone 7. That's where the light is. The long creamy skin tones derived from the Beutler development mimics pyro portrait formulas, with both accelerators; sodium carbonate and hydroxide. Hydroxide just affords so much more acutance.

Palladium toned Kallitype ~ Base print for gum over palladium
"Tammy's Rose" ~ 8x10 ~ digital negative
Eugene, Oregon circa 1984

Dead Air Time ~ Apologies

One of the benefits of being old(er)(ish) comes from the slack one gets for moving slower than the crowd, and the times when their's dead spots along the line of continuity. Not that I'm using that card at this time, just saying. Although the olderish thingy is true. My wife's daughter and grandson came to the desert for a visit. The Old West part of Tucson does have its draw for mid-westerners. Nine days in the desert is the title of our time together, and it was quite enjoyable.

Those nine days spent on the road as guide precluded any darkroom time, painful as that was. Perhaps this missive would have been far better received had it been written on the first day. My apologies and regret for that slight. There are negatives waiting their turn in the printer, so it shouldn't be long before I have an image to show.

Every print is your best one ever