Best blue pigments for gum bichromate

R Shaffer

Member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
436
Location
Santa Cruz,
Format
Multi Format
TheFlyingCamera said:
What are the best blue pigments for gum bichromate? I tried to do a French ultramarine this afternoon and instead of being a nice deep blue, it turned out to be more of a pale blue-gray.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this would be the 'best' blue, but I like the Winsor & Newton 'Winsor Blue ( red shade ) PB 15. I usually use it as a late gum layer to deepen shadows or shift tone. I usually use cyanotype if I want a strong blue image or as 1st layer of tri-color. I do like it quite a bit as a forth layer on my tri-color gums.

Here is a link to handprint on the blue pigments

http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/waterb.html
 

dwross

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2004
Messages
1,263
Location
Oregon Coast
Format
Multi Format
Hi Scott,

I'm a great fan of combining pigments. My favorite blue is Daniel Smith's 'Verditer Blue', which prints a beautiful sky blue. When I want something punchier, I add a dab of Prussian Blue and Quinacridone Rose to the Verditer. But, of course, I can never leave well enough alone. So many colors, so little time!!

I love that you'll be blogging about your gum fun. I imagine you'll take gum to the level of craftsmanship and great images you show with Pt/Pd. Post soon! (And, I hope Art Reactor finds a new home space. Best of luck.)

d
 
OP
OP

TheFlyingCamera

Membership Council
Advertiser
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
11,546
Location
Washington DC
Format
Multi Format
Denise- thanks for the wonderful compliments. I've posted a few of my latest efforts in my gallery here. I'll keep writing about my experiences as I have them. I took a gum printing class a year ago at Project Basho, then had to put it aside for a variety of reasons until recently. I picked it back up again, and with a bit of help from another friend here who does gum, got back on track. Getting started again was a bit of a steep learning curve, as I was doing a number of things not quite right, but the biggest mistake was just grossly over-exposing my prints and not knowing where I needed to start.



 
Last edited by a moderator:

dwross

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2004
Messages
1,263
Location
Oregon Coast
Format
Multi Format
Those are lovely portraits, Scott. I especially like the first. It's beautifully evocative of an Autochrome. Getting such nice skin tones is a real feat.
 

R Shaffer

Member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
436
Location
Santa Cruz,
Format
Multi Format

sdivot

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
257
Location
Houston, Tex
Format
Medium Format
Thanks for the link. I'm currently using WN blue, yellow and red for my full color gum prints. They work pretty well, but I'm always looking for the perfect combination that will result in truer color. Any suggestions are appreciated!
Steve
www.scdowellphoto.com
 

Bob Carnie

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2004
Messages
7,735
Location
toronto
Format
Med. Format RF
When talking to Christina Anderson , she did say using a cyanotype as the first layer worked really well.
 
OP
OP

TheFlyingCamera

Membership Council
Advertiser
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
11,546
Location
Washington DC
Format
Multi Format
In this case, I didn't want the blue as the first layer, rather as a top layer applied to only certain areas of the image. I'm also not a huge cyanotype fan to begin with as to get a good cyanotype, you've got to tailor your negative to the process which means it doesn't print well in platinum, which is my preferred go-to process (not that it would give me a blue layer).
 

Katharine Thayer

Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
520
Format
4x5 Format
Hi, I'm a little late to this thread, but a couple of thoughts: you don't say, but it looks like you're doing a gumover process. There's no "best blue" for gum printing; it just depends on what you want to do. There are a couple of blues that I would consider "not best" for straight gum printing: cerulean and cobalt, as they are both very weak pigments and won't give a gum print the tonal structure it needs. But if your tonal structure is established by an underlying platinum print, then even these might be useful, in the right amount.

I'm surprised the French ultramarine didn't give you a good blue, which makes me think you must be using your pigments quite diluted. Ultramarine is a fairly unsaturated (hue-wise) blue, on the red side; I used to use it a lot for tricolor gum printing because I liked the muted palette it gave. Phtalo is a very strong blue; it's garish to my eyes, but a lot of people like it. The "Winsor blue" mentioned above is a pthalo. For some time now my very favorite blue pigment has been Prussian. You have to watch the brands, because some are very permanent and some aren't; you can check handprint for the details. I love it because it's a lovely transparent blue that makes nice color blends when overlaid in a tricolor gum print and also makes a lovely overlay, or mixed with a little black, a nice monochrome. There's no other blue I would use as a monochrome. Hope any of that is helpful,
 
OP
OP

TheFlyingCamera

Membership Council
Advertiser
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
11,546
Location
Washington DC
Format
Multi Format
Katherine-

thanks for the input. In some cases I am doing gumover. In the case of the two images posted earlier in the thread, they are pure gum, being done with a single negative, so I'm printing with an eye toward creative use of selective color, not verisimilitude. The image with the blue layer, for example, in the original scene the background walls are just gray, not blue and red. I think if I were to try this layer again, I'd try a Winsor Blue (red) with some neutral tint mixed in to darken it so it isn't quite so neon. It's an interesting image to me, in that it has a bit of a 19th century hand-tinted albumen print feel to it, which wasn't quite what I was aiming for, but an interesting effect nonetheless.
 

Katharine Thayer

Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
520
Format
4x5 Format
Okay, I didn't look closely enough; I could have sworn that first one was a gumover. Carry on.... you're doing fine. That's one of the nifty things about gum, especially when learning, is that sometimes you get something you hadn't planned on, but that you find you like better than what you'd planned. At least that's the way I found it to be. Enjoy,
Katharine
 

Ole

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Sep 9, 2002
Messages
9,245
Location
Bergen, Norway
Format
Large Format
From a chemists' viewpoint, "Prussian blue" is identical to what gives cyanotypes their colour. No surprise to me that Prussian Blue has been recommended if a cyanotype base layer for some reason isn't right!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…