This print is the third iteration of the image. The thing with working with gum is that the choices one makes each and ever layer of color lain onto the print, shapes the image in different ways. Getting well into the printing, sometimes at what was planned as the finish; it isn't what you wanted. Better said, the final image isn't what it could be. The corollary of this, is knowing when ti stop printing.
This print is one of a number of Arizona scenic images I have, ready for printing. A good many are sunset shots, being that's where the real color is, the thing gum printing is all about. My printing method uses a single b&w negative, these days, a digital image prepared to make a digital negative, printed on my Epson 1430 13"x19" printer. A very, very fine printer for this work. These days I mostly make gum prints, both in 8"x10" or 11"x14", depending on the image.
This print turned out to be a six print layer print. It was a simpler image to work with than the last one, which was quite complex. What I was after in this print was the soft look of a late afternoon in the desert valley where this image was photographed, being above a western slope, all in shade. That was what I was after. As most of my 8x10 prints, I use Hahnemuhle paper, as it weathers the multi-dipping of the process well, not contorting, buckling and twisting. Where this effect is most prominent is when only local areas of the print image are coated, then floated. The more of these local applications, especially repeated over the same areas, due to expansion/contraction separating areas. Care must be taken when this begins to happen, to keep the image intact, and staying registered.
