Thursday, April 1, 2004
Mixing gum arabic and watercolor paint is turning into a learning experience. That's supposed to be a positive way of saying I'm making mistakes but learning from them. I just have to get it through my head that the nice rich color I see in the mixing cup is going to be a lot lighter once I dilute it with potassium dichromate and spread it on paper. How much lighter is the big question. I'm trying for a deep bottle green shade and my attempt last night turned out more of an olive. Tonight, I'm testing a darker mix over the olive and hoping that the translucency of the emulsion will get close to where I want it to be.
I may end up remaking the enlarged negative with a little less contrast. The highlight areas are darn near bulletproof and another layer or two of gum in a very light tone will be needed if I want to avoid "paper white" from leaking through the image. I've got enough lith film to get me through the weekend in the darkroom and can cut down a few sheets of 16x20 to 8x10, though I'd hoped to save the big sheets for something worthy of their size. Another 100 sheets of 8x10 is on the way from Freestyle but not expected until next week. Not worried, though. If all else fails, it'll be a fine excuse to play with some of last Saturday's bodyscapes as lith prints.
Posted by coldmarble @ 05:55 PM ET [Link] [blab]
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Found a minute to scan a test print of one of the new enlarged negatives with the freshly mixed batch of Van Dyke emulsion. I think this one'll go in the folder to be part of the accordion book.
I've been knocking myself out in the darkroom, trying to finish production of the large lith negatives. I've managed to make at least five or six a week and should be ready to swing into alt-process printing mode soon. I may have to set some limits on the size of the book, try to hold the size down to maybe two dozen images. It keeps wanting to grow, especially when I keep shooting more IR light paint experiments. Worked Saturday evening on a series of bodyscapes, only a few of which I've found time to print yet. Maybe that series would be better as a project of its own.
Posted by coldmarble @ 12:51 PM ET [Link] [blab]
Monday, March 29, 2004
Incredibly productive time in my alt-process class Saturday, though my legs still ache from standing for so long. We started with looking over a big box full of handbound books, getting some inspiration for display and presentation of our final projects. I'm in good shape there, with the materials and ideas coming together nicely. My biggest worry was if the linen tape I have would be strong enough to act as hinge material in an accordion book.
From there it was off to the chemical area to mix up a liter of each of the three components for the Van Dyke emulsion. I hope to extend the shelf life of the solutions by only mixing 100ml at a time. The quart bottles from the photo store were a bit too small to hold a full liter of the solutions. The excess materials were mixed to give me some fresh VDB emulsion and also act as a test of the formula I used. Seems to be just right from the prints I did Sunday.
The rest of the afternoon was devoted to churning out 8x10 negatives on lith film. Pretty much routine stuff after the first one or two, so I was delighted by the distraction of a student working on her thesis project. She was printing several 4x5 negs using the platinum/palladium process. The prints themselves were just lovely, delicate browns and tans with incredible detail. I was enthralled by the process, especially the "instant development" when the developer is dumped on the print. Magic! Ka-Powie, there it is! Some day I'll splurge on a kit and try it myself.
As the evening darkened, I left MICA and headed for the studio to try some more light paint experiments and to give the 35mm in a medium format pinhole a try. Results were pretty bleak with underexposed light paint and "wandering" film - shifting from side to side - in the pinhole. I'll see what, if anything, can be salvaged in the darkroom tonight.
Posted by coldmarble @ 09:48 AM ET [Link] [blab]
