I’ve been working with the same set
of 8 or so negatives for the past few weeks and it’s getting a little boring.
Made a few prints that are pleasing enough. But not pleasing enough to feel
comfortable introducing new negatives using the same printer script as these 8. That’s because over the past few weeks, alongside the
satisfactory prints, there’ve been too many muddy ones.
Muddy prints are not uncommon with
gum printing. A quick Google search proves the point. It’s easy to make them
muddy, but gum prints don’t have to be that way. The main culprit is often poorly
sized paper. But I’m printing with the paper I recently sized and that doesn’t seem to be a problem. This new paper is really sweet. I’ll talk about
why another time.
Gum printing has so many variables
that can effect a finished print. In general, successful pre-script negatives behaved
beautifully for the first few layers, but often enough, prints got pretty
muddy throughout the middle coats of an 8-12 layered print. That’s how these
new negatives have worked as well.
Over the years I’ve learned some
tricks to get through the Big Muddy Middle and onto some exciting finished prints. But
these new negatives are not like any I’ve ever worked with before. And they’re
not cooperating in the usual ways. So I’ve started a second round of prints
with the same negatives. I think I figured out a few things in round one that I
want to test out in round 2.
So I’m still wading a little
gingerly into a big time printing session. I’m up for one. I prefer working
with a lot more than 8 or 10 negatives like I have recently. 25 or more
negatives at the same time is a lot more stimulating on a day to day basis. But
for now, I’ll continue to test the new negatives I’ve been working with the
past couple of months before I add any new images to the mix.
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