This past hiatus from posting derives from a list of challenges I've been entertaining. The other half of my life, outside of printing, and writing. In that recent period I have been experimenting with a different printing paper for gums, as well as the sizing. Not all of that presented good things. Within that experimentation were three print iterations of Capt Jack. None to my liking. I am now four color layers into the fourth print of Capt Jack. I've narrowed the useful portions of the process and finding the current relationship workable.
When I began printing gums forty years ago, I had far fewer choices for printing papers. I settled on Arches hot press watercolor paper, sizing it with two soakings of a 2 1/2% Knox gelatin solution. That paper worked well, then. I have come to find papers more to my liking more recently. One of those papers is Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolor paper. I like the feel of the surface, and the tooth of the paper. This paper is also sized in the interior and exterior, however, it really needs further sizing for finer gum work.
There is a balance between the paper sizing, gum viscosity and amount of color added, that, when in balance keeps the printed image on the surface of the paper sufficiently for good textural detail. If the sizing isn't sufficient, the gum too thin or the added color too much for the first two elements, the image falls into the paper, disappearing as it dries. Too much sizing with thick gum and a lot of color creates an image that more resembles garish acrylic painting work. There is no 'right' amount, or balance. There is but the visual effect the printer finds to their liking. As I have noted before, I mix my gum at 50% solution for printing. So, for me, a single sizing can work, but will require just a little heavier watercolor mixture works best for each color layer.
The recent tests reveal that two soakings of gelatin sizing at 2% solution works very much the same as a single clear gum coating, printed then cleared. Each of those sizing treatments leave a slightly different visual feel to the image, how much textural detail is shown, how much paper texture is seen. Getting the color mixtures right makes all the difference in the final print. It not only has everything to do with how many color layers are needed for a finished print, but also how much textural detail, and smoothness of the coated image is left. There are no 'boundaries' in gum printing. Just personal tastes.
Because of the paper/sizing arrangement of this print, it required ten printed color layers to arrive at a suitable interpretation of the image as I planned. I am no longer interested in replicating a realistic interpretation of the scene. What I want out of the image is my own interpretation of how it is to look. That, is the point of the gum printer. Showing the printer's 'hand', or 'gesture'. I haven't seen any other gum printer, few as there are, to print like me, or each other. Each printer is unique.
Gum Dichromate Print "The Glue Goose" ~ 8"x10" Florence, Oregon
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