My Paintbrush

There's a brand new window in my kitchen, and tonight I've finished painting the trim around it. On my paintbrush was Behr's Black Suede in high gloss: pure lampblack in a dark-based paint. It's totally gorgeous. Viscous, deep, and striking, it's one of the best paints I've ever used. And I've used a lot of paint.

It was the lampblack, though, that made my mind go back to my days as a producer of gum bichromate photographs. From David Scopick's The Gum Bichromate Book, I learned the basics of how to make a non-silver photographic print. It was a process that took a lot of trial and error to use. I can't say I perfected it, because every time I used a different color, the process changed. It became my obsession- and my final BFA project in college.

Here are the essential steps. First, expose and process a 4x5 or 8x10 black and white negative. (No small feat.) Next, mix ammonium dichromate, gum arabic, and your choice of watercolor pigments to make a light-sensitive emulsion. Lampblack was suggested as the color to use for black and white results, so that's what I used the first time. Next, paint the emulsion on a piece of watercolor paper that has already been "sized" (i.e. coated with gesso, spray starch, or soaked in a formaldehyde solution). When it's dry, place your negative on it and sandwich it between a piece of glass and a board. Expose it to a strong UV light source. Place the paper, emulsion side down, in a tray of warm water. The highlights will dissolve, and the shadows will stick. Voila, you just made a gum bichromate photographic print.

As I got the hang of it, I began to experiment with other colors. Actually, I began to experiment before I really had the process down, which led to a lot of failures. Anyway, I had seen the gum bichromate prints of a professor from Utah State who used unusual colors, so I got creative.

One successful print was a picture of three pears, taken at my dorm room in Norway. I printed it using only light yellow pigment, then used watercolors on the finished print to give the pears a very faint blush. Another favorite is a small print of the Manti, Utah LDS temple done in light blue and yellow. The blue image above is the center court of the Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo. This process lends itself best to strong graphic negatives- not too detailed- and so portraits look wonderful, too.

Oh, if the chemicals were not so caustic and the process a little more predictable (and my current job not quite so demanding), I might be tempted to dabble again... but I know that's an ambition for another time. For now I'll settle for a paintbrush dipped in thick lampblack paint and the satisfaction of finishing another small home-improvement project.