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Hi BruceHopefully this the right place to ask this question. I'm creating palladium prints using digital negatives. Lately I have creating images that could use a hint of color. Back in the day I would use oils to had color silver gelatin prints. I attempted the same technique on a palladium print with disastrous results. The first attempt was with traditional oils diluted with mineral spirits. The diluted oils soaked right into the paper. The next attempt was using watercolors. I diluted the mixture, yet the watercolors soak right into the paper. I have tried various mediums with the same results. The watercolors and oils soak in and cannot be lifted. The real issue is if the oils or watercolors bleed into an area where they are not wanted. This is easily solved when using the same techniques on silver gelatin prints. I have even tried to coat the paper with gelatin sizing. The results were the same. I have seen hand colored platinum palladium prints in the past so I know that this is possible. I have tried both Arches and Hahnemuhle. There must be some technique that works. I would love to hear opinions.
~Bruce
Thanks for the reply Bob. I am seriously considering going down the gum route. I tried a few simple gum over palladium prints and the results very very cool. Is there a link that you can provide that shows some samples of gum prints or three color gum over platinum palladium?Hi Bruce
I gum print over palladium and have no issues using Daniel Smith Pigments over the print in fact I am about to use airbrush system to do this as well.. there is a long thread I started called mutiple register prints or something like that where you can see some of the prints.
there is a fb group on gum printing which is very awesome.. google my threads and you will see I started one on multiple printing and there are samples there.Thanks for the reply Bob. I am seriously considering going down the gum route. I tried a few simple gum over palladium prints and the results very very cool. Is there a link that you can provide that shows some samples of gum prints or three color gum over platinum palladium?
I'm a painter who's had a lot more success with painting than photography. Water colors and diluted oils will bleed. It's their nature, and part of the reason why artists choose them. Study some videos about how watercolor artists control the bleed. That will help. It's easier to watch someone do it than read about it.
One technique is that paint the area you whish to color with water, no pigment. That way you have some control over where it goes, and if it bleeds beyond where you want it, you do no damage. Then, after the area is wet, work some color into it. You'll use a slightly higher concentration of pigment than normal, because you'll be mixing the color on the paper. Practice this technique first by drawing some shapes on some blank paper and coloring them in. It takes some skill to do well. Don't use too much water, or you'll get wrinkles in the areas you work.
Another option is to use miskit or friskite. It's a liquid rubber you apply to the areas surrounding the parts you don't want colored. Then, you fill in your color, let it dry, and come back and rub off the miskit.
You'll want to do this on dry paper. Usually with watercolor you work on wet paper so that it goes on more smoothly with less blotching and softer borders. But for what your doing, you not interested in having the traditional watercolor free flowing look. So controlling the wet and dry areas will make things easier. It helps to have a hair dryer on hand so that you're not waiting around forever, and to tape or secure the paper so that it doesn't buckle.
Ordinarily oil paints are easier to use, but you're not using them in the traditional manner, so I think watercolors would be easier in your case. Mineral spirits dries very quickly and has less surface tension.
You might also experiment with different papers or sizing (I prefer PVA). They won't solve the problem by themselves, but some papers and sizes are easier to work than others. The problem you're going to have is paper that doesn't bleed paint as much won't be as easy to coat with emulsion. So you might consider trying to strike a good balance. But mostly, you're just going to have to learn the techniques.
Thanks Bob. I am bailing from hand coloring in favor of learning gum printing. Thanks for sharing your images. I hope that I can reach out to you for some advice in the near future. I have done a few gum over palladium prints to explore the process and the results were somewhat promising. I will read up more on the topic. The real issue will be calibrating for digital negatives. I use Epson ABW for my negatives now as QTR stopped working for me when I replaced my 3880 with a SureColor P7000. This could be fun.Make sure you post images somewhere... I will post when I do air brush,,, here are a couple of recent images I did.View attachment 226394 View attachment 226395
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