"Wagon Team" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 As do most gum prints, this print took a good amount of time to build up the textural detail, without losing the light quality on the horses. Something I am more focused on these days. The images I am drawing upon for printing tend to be eclectic, being gum printing is so personal, and unique, that for me, each image is printed as a one time thing, and the outcome should match what I previsualized it to be.

Okay, that's  a squishy gray area of determination. So many factors to consider, such as is it worthy of keeping even though it turned out to be something slightly different than planned, and, do I really want to start over and spend several more weeks at it? Questions.

Being I use a single b&w negative; printed by my Epson 1430 13x19 printer. An amazing printer of all the Epson printers I've had over the years. I use the  CYMK protocol of color selection; basically. I also add my own color mixtures, as well as locally applied colors, however, not done on this print. this print was a nine color layer print, shear enough to build up textural detail while retaining the light quality. That, of course also requires fairly precise print times, float times, and water temperature. All of which demands practice. Lots of it.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Wagon Team"

Tombstone, Arizona

"Lady in Light" ~Gum Dichromate Print

 This is the second printing of this image. Mostly because I was experimenting with a new style of printing, using  shear overlapping colors in the background, however, that didn't turn out as I had planned, or hoped. Thus, this  second printing. The first printing was a gum over palladium print. This iteration is a gum dichromate print, of ten print layers of color,  some with split colors.

This printing is also using the updated processing of gum printing; thinner gum mixture, thinner color layers; more control over the layers. Being the subject of this image has yet to sign off on me using her likeness in a commercial way, I keep it to this blog, and her.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Lady in Light" 8"x10"

"Tombstone Marshals" ~ Palladium toned Kallitype

 I have been keeping my focus on gum  printing of late, due to the time it takes to make them. A simple gum print takes about two weeks to complete, from paper treatment to final clearing and rinse. A more complex image becomes far more complicated to print, and can take up to six weeks to bring it to fruition. A Palladium  print can be made in an afternoon.

The reason for said focus on gum printing is due to my recent membership in a local gallery, and subsequent need for a continued supply of prints to exhibit therein. A hiatus from exhibiting my prints for the past forty years, since they hang in my gallery, in Eugene Oregon. With one exception, to agreeing to hang in a fellow photographer's gallery in Mesilla, New Mexico, a couple years ago. The write up in the local paper, started out; "Come see the Dinosaur!". That be me. showing prints made of a process more thana century old. Yep, that'd be me.

This palladium print was first printed last year. An image I had wanted to print when I began printing the images from the Tombstone portfolio. The images of that portfolio were taken over a ten year span, photographing forays in  Tombstone. The images were achieved by being in the right place at the right time, to be able to exclude any modernity; no cars or turistas. Only people [reenactors] in period dress, horse drawn wagons, stagecoach, and gun  fighter types. The Palladium  process came into being in the 1870's, and was in practical use before the OK Corral gun battle took place. A proper photographic form  to showcase Tombstone history.

Palladium toned Kallitype

"Tombstone Marshalls" 11"x14"

Tombstone, Arizona

{Grandpa's Cabin II" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 I changed things up a bit, printing this image. I've had it in a folder for some time, having printed the first take on the cabin from another angle, printed as a gum over palladium print. This one is all gum work. I just liked the light effect on the cabin in this image, cropping it tighter than the first print; Skinner's Cabin.

This print was built  of ten color layers, fairly shear and brushed out thin. Mostly the colors are based upon the CYMK colors, with Emerald Green [foliage] and Raw Sienna [cabin] to separate the two. Being mostly color blind to red/green I can say I see any real obvious green in the foliage area or on the ferns, by the tree and corner of cabin. It was applied, although perhaps not heavy enough.

I will be continuing with the gum printing for a while, although I do make a palladium print from time to time. The most recent being "Tombstone Marshals", a favorite of mine, and final print of the edition; 2/2. I do have another print ready to be made of "Team Horses", a sort of portrait of two draft horses hitched to a wagon on Tombstone's main street. It was the brilliant white/silver mane of the one horse that struck me as worth of printing. Well, that's me.

Gum Dichromate Print

"Grandpa's Cabin II"

"Lily" ~ Gum Dichromate Print

 The updated process to the gum printing has been showing good results. The thinner gum mixture works out well, something I wouldn't have believed forty years ago. Thus it is. I am able to brush out a much thinner layer each run, leaving much better textural detail, and, better printing times.

These prints take two weeks to make, give or take. This print received ten color print layers to arrive at a finished level of textural detail, while leaving the brilliance of the image intact. Takes a lot of printing practice. I have settled on a 'color adjustment curve' that works  well for gum printing. I created it in Printshop Pro x9 software. Basically Photoshop for digital photography. This density curve was created for platinum/palladium [Na2 ~ 'double sodium' printing. Works quite well for gum as well.

This series of flower images were photographed as reference material for my late wife's watercolor paintings. Now, they will become gum prints, in her honor.  So many flower images are shot high contrast, with brightly lit flower in a solid black background. I don't do that. 

Gum Dichromate Print

"Lily" 11"x14"