Multiple Layer Gum Printing

[Bob Carnie]

Images courtesy of Ian Campbell and Dave Hunsberger

These images are from a Fun with Gum workshop we just had over the weekend..
Over thirty images made with all kinds of success from excellent to lousy.
I attribute lots of the lousy prints due to Operator Error.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Images courtesy Len Middleton - a member here- from the weekend workshop.
He says that he did colour printing on this old enlarger , I think Len is crazy

 

[Bob Carnie]

Images courtesy Stephen Chen from the same workshop

two different versions of the same image - this image was difficult to make.

 

[Bob Carnie]

All Images courtesy of Thomas Brasch ...

As you can see for this workshop we worked upstairs in my gallery for coating paper under the gallery tungsten lights, and we did employ some brush work this weekend
as we were concentrating on Duo Tones primarily and for this type of work water hose and brushes reveal the first layer quite nicely.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Moderators How do we switch this to a Hybrid designation? as I would then be able to expand on the methods.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Moderators How do we switch this to a Hybrid designation? as I would then be able to expand on the methods.

 

[MattKing]

Moderators How do we switch this to a Hybrid designation? as I would then be able to expand on the methods.

Report your own post, in order to draw it to the moderators' attention.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Thanks -- now I feel better..

 

[cowanw]

Hmm. A simple question, but a very deep philosophical switch, which will likely play over all of Apug. After all there must be very few Analogue topics that one could not add "I would then be able to expand on the methods". With this same rationale, one small and reasonable step at a time, Apug will inevitably become Hypug. My suggestion would be to start a new thread in the Hybrid section. And you could repost or refer to everything needed in the old thread. Or am I being stupidly semantic?

 

[MattKing]

Hmm. A simple question, but a very deep philosophical switch, which will likely play over all of Apug. After all there must be very few Analogue topics that one could not add "I would then be able to expand on the methods". With this same rationale, one small and reasonable step at a time, Apug will inevitably become Hypug. My suggestion would be to start a new thread in the Hybrid section. And you could repost or refer to everything needed in the old thread. Or am I being stupidly semantic?

Bill:
Well I would generally agree, I think in this case the thread subject was inherently hybrid, but Bob constrained his earliest posts in order to respect the APUG rules. So in this case, a movement of the thread makes a lot of sense.

 

[NedL]

I generally agree too, and the same thought crossed my mind. But as Matt noted, the original post was about a hybrid process and Bob limited his description of that part of it to "I made an enlarged negative to 16 x20 of this image on film", even though all of us reading the thread understood the part being left out was "hybrid". So I do think this thread is something of a special case. In general I think your idea is good to start a new hybrid thread and refer back as needed.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I deliberately started this thread way back in the bad old days where one would be at risk of mentioning any thing concerning PS... Probably the most important element in multiple gum printing is the negative generation and as Matt points out I could not talk openly in respect to Sean and knowing the changes he was going to make.

I want to expand this thread to include all elements of my experience and I hope this thread stays in the hybrid section , where I believe it deserves to be in.

I have lots more to add to this thread and over the winter hope to make that happen. I am also very interested in hearing others work arounds... It has been said and I believe it to be true that in PS there are 5 or more different ways of doing one task. I hope to lear the other 4.

Bob

 

[removed account4]

YESSSS !!

can't wait to feast my eyes bob !
john

 

[Bob Carnie]

Here I am getting ready to select the show going to Propeller Gallery opening Sept 21.

All these prints, even the frogs(not mine but Thomas Brash) are Multiple layer Gum Prints... the bottom row already framed are Duotones from Black and White Solarized film and the smaller
Matted prints on top are tri tone from colour solarized neg .

This is a lot of work preparing for a show, but as a printer I feel it is necessary for me to stretch myself and do shows so I can relate to the experiences my clients have.

 

[Dinesh]

View attachment 186259
Here I am getting ready to select the show going to Propeller Gallery opening Sept 21..

Keep in mind that those are framed medium format (6x6) contact prints. Yes, he is that short.

 

[Bob Carnie]

once again the peanut gallery attacks , don't you have anything better to do than make fun me

i am short I agree but the bigger they are the harder they fall.

 

[adelorenzo]

I'm excited to join this thread. A visit to Bob's gallery last month was enough to convince me that I need to try gum printing. I started fooling around a bit this weekend, so far I have made a half dozen prints with one that has made it to acceptable status.

This is from an 8x10 Ilford FP4+ negative that has normal contrast. I'm finding that using a full contrast negative works better than lower contrast ones. Maybe because I'm trying to hit the highlights and shadows with different pigment layers and exposure times it helps to have more separation of tones. The paper is Rising Stonehenge that has been sized with PVA. I'm using a two-hole office punch for registration. 10% ammonium dichromate sensitizer and using Opus brand pigments.

This started with a burnt umber layer, then a payne's gray, then two layers of payne's gray darkened with extra black pigment. For the last two layers I doubled the gum/pigment ratio and halved the exposure time. I didn't scan after the first layer but here are the next three layers. The scans are somewhat close to what the prints look like but I can't get the colors exactly right.

The streaks on the front are from when I accidentally dropped a piece of paper into the tray while the print was developing. Looking at it now I should have done a bit of brushwork on the left headlight and on the fenders to pop those highlights...

 

[NedL]

That's very cool!

 

[Bob Carnie]

Really nice... I have found that mixing pigments are sometimes good for example thaylo blue green shade with a Magenta .. goes against thinking but the contrast of the blue comes out better..

I try to keep all my mixtures the same so that over time if there is problems I am one error away from the problem. Pre shrink the paper and use distilled water as your first bath is what I have found good in my dim room, as well really
shake the pigment first, then the pigment gum dichromate before coating.

 

[adelorenzo]

Thanks Bob! I have been pre-shrinking paper and doing lots of shaking when I mix. Have only used tap water for the first bath so far, what was the difference you found with distilled?

 

[Bob Carnie]

Thanks Bob! I have been pre-shrinking paper and doing lots of shaking when I mix. Have only used tap water for the first bath so far, what was the difference you found with distilled?

Not sure but it solved some fisheye problems , Toronto water at different times of the year can be really different.. Also I agitate face down and flip a couple of times to avoid air pockets that leave big circular patterns if you do not catch it in the first wash.

Where are you getting your Pigments from??

 

[adelorenzo]

Where are you getting your Pigments from??

Opus Art Supplies in Vancouver. I can't buy gum arabic anywhere in town so I ordered my gum from them. They sell their own house-brand pigments that are a bit cheaper than the others so I figured I'd try them out. They are a good outfit I order from them from time to time.

I bought my ammonium dichromate through Westlab also in Vancouver. I've also used them in the past for chems and lab supplues. I got 500g of dichromate and it was quite a bit cheaper than Formulary prices, plus of course Formulary won't ship it to Canada anyways.

 

[adelorenzo]

D'oh!!!! When I was making the last post I noticed that the Opus pigments I bought came in 8 ml tubes and that most other brands come in 15 ml tubes. Which means all my solutions are mixed at half the strength I thought they were! That explains why it seemed like I was not getting deep enough colors.

 

[ced]

Anthony, I love the gum print of the truck it looks like you are well on your way!

 

[adelorenzo]

Another early effort. This one is three layers and kind of a mish mash of colours. Ilford FP4+ 8x10 negative. Right now just having fun just trying a bunch of stuff and seeing what happens.