Alteration of the Character of the Picture by the Inking.—If the inking is carried out exactly according to the previous instructions, which have been given chiefly for the benefit of beginners, the result will be a picture which, as regards gradation, will be like the original bromide print before it was bleached. The finished bromoil print, produced by a perfectly even application of ink over the whole picture by means of successive additions, each thoroughly worked over with the brush, differs from the original bromide print in coloration, structure, more extended gradation, and change in the character of its surface. As the worker is at liberty to stop at any desired stage of the work, he can obtain from the original bromide print, according to his taste, a delicate light-toned bromoil or a very rich and highly modulated print, or any intermediate stage between these two extremes.
Yet these possibilities by themselves alone would not justify the conversion of the original bromide print into a bromoil. The substitution of a new photographic positive process for an old one is only justified if the new process accomplishes something essentially different and above all something better. But absolutely uniform working over of the bleached bromide print with greasy inks does not completely fulfil this postulate. Mere changes of gradation of the whole picture or of its color can certainly be attained by simpler photographic methods. The extraordinary advantages of the bromoil process lie in other directions.
Bromoil printing, for instance, permits us to ink any individual part of the print more or less, or even notat all, at will; it is possible to give enormous brilliance and aerial perspective to the high lights; they may show when finished every tonal value represented in the negative; it is also possible to darken them to an extraordinary extent by the application of more or softer ink. On the other hand, the shadows may be kept perfectly light by omitting to ink them or by very delicate treatment, or, by successive applications of the ink, they may be strengthened to very great intensity and yet retain all their details.
The worker has wide opportunity for control in the local treatment of his prints. His dependence on the negative is limited to the drawing, while in the treatment of the tonal values he is absolute master.Most of the other positive processes are dependent on the negative for their extremes of depth and of delicacy; the bromoil process does not know this dependence. If it is desired to obtain a delicate picture from any negative, one uses only a little ink, and hops it off thoroughly; then there may be obtained from eventhe most contrasty negative a delicate print, but one thoroughly worked out in all its details. On the other hand, there is practically no limit to the continued application of ink; the film is still capable of taking up more ink, long after the limits of artistic pictorial effect have been passed. The result is that in the bromoil processvigor and depth of the shadows can be produced in any desired intensity. The most striking advantage of the process lies, however, in the possibility of changing the tonal values of any individual portion of the print at will.
If for example, a negative was used in making the original bromide print which had been taken withoutany attention to the requirements for getting correct tones, by suitable treatment in making the bromoil one can obtain an approximately correct print without special trouble, since one can, for instance, convert an absolutely clogged-up sky, which is pure white in the bromide print, to a suitable grey tone by the use of soft ink, and at the same time lighten foliage which is too dark; a flat print, wanting in plasticity, may be improved by making objects in the foreground more vigorous, and accentuating appropriate parts of the middle distance. It is easily possible to supply the lacking aerial perspective of certain kinds of prints. In portrait work in the bromoil process, skilful workmanship renders one absolutely independent of the nature of the background. A light background can be made dark, a dark one light. In portraits taken out of doors, the small details of the background that are out of focus or obtrusive may be omitted, toned down or completely remodeled. Unpleasing details of the clothing or the hair can be omitted or so far softened down that they are no longer disturbing. We are able to accentuate certain parts of the picture to make them dominant, while other parts of the image may be treated very sketchily; in short, the possibilities of control which this process offers are almost inexhaustible.
I will now try to outline the methods of carrying out some of these modifications, as far as is possible without practical demonstration.
The beginner is first of all recommended to use a proof print from the negative as a check, so that he may have a clear idea as to what changes he needs to make, and so that further, in carrying out his ideas, he does not change neighboring parts of the print whichshould remain unchanged. The simplest example of control is thelightening of the shadows. This is done by very careful application of the ink, which is stopped before the shadow parts become too dark. One should avoid touching such parts later with the brush, when it is charged with soft ink.
If light portions are to be made darker, the procedure depends upon the size of the parts involved. Extensive parts of the picture in high relief, as for instance the sky, should be gone over as evenly as possible with a suitable soft ink, and with this, simultaneously, by going lightly over the lighter places and applying it more heavily here and there, clouds may be put in. The evenness of the inking is of the greatest importance here, as it cannot later be hopped off very much; frequently in such cases the ink only lies on the surface, without adhering firmly; if left untouched, it combines intimately with the surface when the print is dry, but is easily removed by hopping. It is possible to change the outlines of neighboring parts of the image; if too dark edges are formed, they can be easily softened by after treatment of the finished print. In some cases it may be necessary to add considerable quantities of varnish or linseed oil to dilute the ink. The darkening of too light places may be also effected by dabbing ink with the brush on the finished dried print, which the print then naturally takes all over.
If tiny light patches are to be made darker, the point of the large brush, or if necessary of a very small brush should be used, avoiding any disturbance of surrounding parts, as far as possible. Such changes are difficult only when the bright spots that are to be worked out are in immediate contact with very dark parts. The processis much simpler when parts of the print of medium tones, which are surrounded by lighter parts, are to be darkened. If, for instance, the eyes of a portrait are to be darkened, ink should be applied to the whole of the eye with a small brush, and then hopped off. A tree trunk, which must be brought out in relief, should be covered throughout its whole length with soft ink, and the ink should then be worked over, by hopping it from the lighter toward the darker parts. In practice, the bringing together of neighboring tones, which differ considerably in value, can be easily effected byhopping off the ink from the darker partswith a brush that has not been freshly charged with ink,and depositing it on the lighter parts. The lightening of too dark places can also be attained by going over them with a perfectly clean brush that has not been dipped in the ink. Isolated high lights can be accentuated by touching them with a pointed water-color brush, dipped in water; then the film swells and repels the ink.Stained high lights or too dark middle tonesmay be lightened by wetting a brush of proper size by means of a wet cloth and then lightly hopping with this the places which are to be corrected. The brush picks up the color, but must be immediately cleaned by rubbing it on a clean portion of the palette, after which it may be again wet and used again. Clouds can be worked into dark parts of the sky in this way.
The Structure of the Ink.—Independently of the surface of the paper on which the work is done,the structure of the coating of ink can be influenced by the nature of the brush work. If a brush well charged with ink has its full surface placed firmly on the gelatine film and then slowly lifted up, an impression of thesurface of the brush remains; the individual hairs or groups of hairs of the brush have each deposited a part of the ink that they had taken up, and a very coarse-grained spot of ink is produced. If we now hop, that is, dab with quick light blows of the brush, the ink begins to be distributed, since it is taken away from the lighter parts and taken up by the shadows. The drawing of the picturethus appears under the brush, at first with a very coarse grain and without many details. The longer one hops and thus distributes the ink, the finer becomes the grain, and it especially becomes much finer on the addition of softer ink.The bromoil printer hence has it completely within his power to limit the division of the ink to any desired coarseness of grain, assuming, of course, that he has suited the consistency of the ink to the degree of relief, and is therefore able to completely finish the print with the original ink without adding any softer. Prints may thus be prepared, which because of their coarse structure, resemble certain graphic methods. But, when this is intended, the application of the ink must be carried on as evenly as possible from the beginning, so that it needs very little hopping off, for any considerable amount of hopping unavoidably produces a finer grain. Even if the use of softer inks is necessary, a coarse structure can be obtained by suitable brush work.The longer, however, the ink is distributed by hopping, the finer becomes the structure of the ink filmand the smoother the surface.
The most perfect smoothness is also attainable, if it is desired for any reason. For this a not too volatile solvent should be used, such as heavy benzol. The method of using this is as follows: when the print has been fully inked and is complete, though still somewhatcoarse-grained, a cloth should be wet with the benzol, and the brush lightly pressed thereon and then passed quickly over the desired parts of the picture. At first a smeared spot is formed on the surface of the print; by continued gentle hopping the spot is gradually worked out, and by continued working we get a fineness of detail, equal to that of printing-out paper. It is true that even the highest lights acquire a delicate film of ink, so that a print treated in this way is somewhat low in key. If the hopping with the brush charged with benzol is not continued until the finest possible grain is attained, a misty effect may be produced, with some suppression of the finest details; a method which is frequently useful in the production of landscapes.
By suitable ink and brush technique the effect of any other known photographic printing process may be attained in bromoil printing, from the rich-in-detail gloss of collodio-chloride paper to the characteristic effects of gum-bichromate. Yet the far-reaching possibilities which bromoil places at our command really only begin where most of the other processes end.
Different Methods of Working.—In the following pages some of the different methods of technique, which the bromoil process permits, will be briefly sketched. Obviously, however, the description of these methods cannot be made complete without practical demonstration. Nor can all conceivable methods of working be mentioned, as individual treatment of the process can be varied in many ways.
We will first describe the method of working which is most suitablefor the beginner, because it offers tolerable certainty to those who have not yet mastered the process.
The beginner, in order to obtain good results, must start with a bromide print as clean and well-modeled as possible, and its high lights should not be fogged in the least. He should place the print, bleached and prepared exactly according to the methods detailed in this book, in water at about 18° C. (65° F.), leave it there for a few minutes, dry its surface, and begin the application of the ink with the stiffer ink, which should be thinly applied and then worked over until the hopping brings out no further detail. If the drawing of the image does not quickly appear upon hopping the print, and the result is only a detailless patch of ink, the original temperature of the soaking bath must be increased. Then the print should be again immersed in the water, left for two minutes, and again dried. The work of hopping is now continued with the same brush with which the print was originally treated,and without its having been again put into the ink. As a rule the mere placing of the print in water again will have increased the contrasts, and new details will have appeared, which can be considerably accentuated by now going over with the brush. Only when the print has been again worked over, should fresh ink be carefully applied with the brush; this should then be distributed by hopping, and the print again soaked in water. The procedure thus outlined: application of the ink, hopping, soaking, going over it with the empty brush, fresh ink application, hopping, soaking, and so on, is continued as long as the print gains in strength and depth, without becoming dull or muddy. If, however, this point is reached, the inked print should be immersed in water at a rather higher temperature and left in it for some minutes. The print is then furthertreated with the brush, without fresh inking, and will soon become much clearer in the high lights. If the clearing thus obtained is not sufficient, the temperature of the water bath should be increased by a few degrees, but not more than 5° C. (9° F.) at a time. As the high lights become clearer it may happen that the stiff ink will no longer be taken up. Then it is necessary to soften it a little. This method of working will guarantee to the beginner the attainment of good results with tolerable certainty.
Hard Ink Technique(Coarse-grain Prints).—If it is desired to prepare a bromoil print ofrough surface and coarser character, the worker must be able to finish the print exclusively with a relatively hard ink. For this it is necessary to determine by trial the temperature of the water bath at which the film of the print acquires a relief which is absolutely suitable for the stiff ink. When this degree of relief has been found, the print should be inked up strongly but evenly from the very start, so that one is not compelled to go over individual places several times with the brush. Thus the coarse structure of the ink is obtained. The use of hog’s bristle brushes is also efficacious in coarse-grained work.
Soft Ink Technique.—This method of working is used on the one hand for the preparation of low-toned misty effects, on the other hand to obtain fully and richly modeled prints. In the first case the bromide print should be correctly exposed, but not completely developed; while in the second case it should be thoroughly developed. The print is then, according to the choice of the operator, either brought at once to a fairly high relief, or only gradually raised to the same reliefduring the application of the ink. Then, in the course of inking, a point is soon reached at which the stiffer ink is repelled by the high lights and perhaps also by the lighter half-tones, and during the hopping is again taken up by the brush. Then the ink should be carefully softened with linseed oil or varnish, and the whole print gone over with the softer ink. Prints which are executed in the soft ink technique are characterized by a specially fine velvety surface after defatting.
Sketch Technique.—If one proposes to completely work up certain parts of a print and leave the rest treated in a sketchy manner, and possibly to omit some parts altogether, one should begin by working up the part which should stand out. Thus, in a portrait, the head should be first worked up; then proceed systematically, with the ink remaining in the brush, to sketch in the clothing and the background, and perhaps leave unimportant parts of the print completely untouched. To facilitate the work, disturbing details or a too prominent background may be removed or reduced on the bromide print, before bleaching, with dilute Farmer’s reducer. If, when the work is finished, the parts that have not been inked are visible through their relief and glossiness, these traces of the uninked picture completely disappear in drying, if the original bromide print was not developed too vigorously. If one contemplates producing a vignette, it is absolutely unnecessary to obtain this by the use of masks or vignetters when making the bromide print. The effects which result from the suitable treatment of the bromoil print are far more free and beautiful.
If certain parts of the picture are to be accentuated and all the rest is to be rendered visible, even if onlysketchily, one may also work in the reverse way. The whole picture should be given a thin coating of ink, as even as possible, which should be hopped only just enough to barely bring out the drawing. Then work out those parts, to which attention is to be directed, keeping as closely as possible to the outlines. When these, the most important parts of the print, are finished, it is frequently seen that the rest of the picture is too delicate. This should then be gone over again with the ink as at first, without completely working it up, until the correct tonal value is attained. Then the necessary harmony is obtained by going over the outlines with the brush.
Large Heads.—The far-reaching possibilities of the bromoil process offer special advantages for the free modification of tones in portraits. It is advisable to take the portraits with a neutral or dark background. The only exception is when a head is to be done in red chalk, when a white background is preferable. Starting from such a negative in bromoil printing the background may be kept, according to choice, either light or very dark, or be shaded. One precaution should, however, be observed in every case; before starting on the head itself, the background should be worked in lightly from the margins toward the head, so that no dark line may be formed when working on the outlines of the portrait. If this shows during the work, it must be worked down to harmony with the background at once before it gets too dark. One can, therefore, from a given negative, produce at will either a fully worked-up head against a dark ground, or a light, sketchy image on the light background of the paper, or any intermediate stage.
If, as previously suggested, parts of the picture areto be treated sketchily, while others are to be fully worked up, the parts which should appear sketchy are allowed to remain coarse-grained, while the structure gradually becomes finer in passing into the worked-up portions. No portion, however, should be made perfectly structureless. Bromoil prints thus worked up are much more artistic than those pictures which are known by the name of photo-sketches. The latter usually show a head, printed with all the gradation and fullness of detail given by printing-out paper. The tone becomes gradually lighter toward the edges, where we find some strong lines, imitating the character of a line drawing, all surrounded by a perfectly white background. To the trained eye the technique of such photo-sketches is abominable, for the contrast between the inimitable detail of the head and the perfectly blank background is so great that it cannot be bridged over by the effort to imitate the manner of an etching. On the other hand, such problems can be solved in an artistic way with our process, for the head may always be produced in a rather coarse grain, so that it dovetails harmoniously into the sketchily treated surroundings.
Oil-Painting Style.—If it is desired to prepare portraits which resemble reproductions of oil paintings, one should proceed as follows: the head should be first inked in considerably deeper than it should appear in the final print; then, if the head is on a light background, it will appear vigorous, even if not much ink is used. If, however, the background is dark and heavy, the inked-up head will appear considerably lighter because of the contrast. For this style of work it is best to select a warm dark brown ink. When the head is finished, some very soft ink of the same shade shouldbe placed very thickly in the corners and margins of the picture, and this should be worked from all sides towards the head, which naturally must not be touched with the soft ink. Finally the blending of the head with the background should be very carefully done. In the lower part of the portrait the clothing should blend into the background in a similar manner; only one must take care in making the negative that no light pieces of drapery or accessories are used, because they cannot be easily completely covered. Any lighter accents, which may be desired in the background, should be made by removing the ink with a clean brush. One may thus make the head stand out in a dark oval, or attain similar painting effects. Prints prepared in this way ought not to be defatted, as they then lose their similarity to oil paintings. They must be left to dry for several days, in a place free from dust, until the thickly-applied ink has hardened.
Night Pictures.—Twilight and night effects can be easily obtained from ordinary negatives by carefully swelling the bleached print so that the differences of relief existent in the print are only slightly brought out. Then the capacity of the lights and shadows for taking the ink is not so very different, and the gradation is shorter. A second possibility of obtaining the same effect is offered by using mainly soft ink, which, as is well known, adheres to a certain extent even in the high lights of the print; only the soft ink must be applied very carefully and thinly in the shadows, so that these do not become choked up with ink.
In this way one may make night pictures from daylight exposures, accurately corresponding in tone values to night exposures. Previous practice has been to useeither underexposed negatives or overexposed prints for such effects; in both cases the night effects were gloomy, but false in tone values, and usually without details in the shadows. In bromoil printing the gradation can be shortened as described, without loss of drawing, and one can simulate perfectly the short scale and mysterious gloom of night. If the too dense sky of the negative cannot be sufficiently darkened by the use of soft ink, its inking should be postponed till the print is dry.
Prints with White Margins.—If it is desired to obtain bromoil prints withmargins of the natural paper, the negative should be masked with clean-cut black safe-edges of lantern slide binding strips, or one may use a mask, and print or enlarge on a sheet of bromide paper large enough to leave unexposed margins of the desired width. In making enlargements the mask, cut out of rather thin card, should be pinned on the enlarging screen over the sheet of bromide paper. After bleaching such a print the tanned image will appear slightly depressed within a strongly swollen, white frame of less tanned gelatine. The inking is done without any attention being paid to this unprinted edge. In consequence of its strong relief this gelatine does not take any ink from the brush, or, at most, a mere trace. When the print is finished, the ink is easily wiped from the white margins by means of a damp cloth, which removes this ink with the greatest ease. The finished and dried print is enhanced in effect if a plate mark is impressed in this wide white margin.
The Swelled-Grain Image.—Coarse-grain printing in bromoil has previously depended on a very carefully determined relation between the degree of relief of the film and the consistency of the ink, which had to be sochosen that the ink was not very easily taken up by the film. If inking was then skilfully done, the structure of the face of the brush was visible to a certain extent all over the print and gave the effect of a more or less coarse and irregular-grained image. It was obviously necessary for the success of a print of this type that no portion of the image should be gone over several times with the brush, for, if this was done, the structure was obliterated and the spot in question became smooth. Since, also, the requirement that the degree of relief must be rather high for the chosen consistency of the ink could never be fulfilled by the shadows, since these always take the color easily, we often obtained an undesired smoothness of effect in the shadows. For this reason typical coarse-grain prints could not always be produced with certainty.
I therefore endeavored to improve the technique of bromoil in this respect and to work out a grain method which could be depended upon with certainty in every case. The basic thought was thatthe fundamental basis for making a coarse grain print should be a part of the film itself, and I endeavored to prepare the latter so that a grain structure could be produced which should equally underlie all parts of the image.
Such a grain structure can theoretically be obtained in the following way: if we allow a properly prepared uninked bromoil print, which has been brought to the proper degree of relief, to dry off a little and then spray it by means of an atomizer with extremely fine liquid drops, the film will again swell up under every drop, but only under these; and when we ink up, we obtain a definite grain effect which, however, only persists if the inking is completed before the sprayed-on watergrain again dries out. Such a relief grain is not permanent, because the subsequently swollen portions of the film cannot retain the difference in swelling. This process, therefore, has only experimental interest and practically can be used but rarely.
To make the swelled grain useful, the secondarily swollen points of the film must permanently retain the difference in swelling which has been imparted to them.
To attain this end, I start from the fact that portions of the gelatine which are treated with alkaline solution will swell much more in a bath of warm water than spots which have not been thus handled. If, therefore, the desired grain can be applied to the film by means of an alkaline solution, all the elements of the grain will swell up more strongly in the water bath than their surroundings, and will therefore protrude above the rest of the film and thus attain and retain a better degree of swelling than the latent tanned image.
The next step was obviously a practical treatment of the film by spraying it as evenly as possible with extremely fine drops of an alkaline solution. It soon appeared that the greatest attention must be paid to the type of apparatus with which the spraying was to be done. Any atomizer whose spray combines fine and coarse drops is useless. Any atomizer which is worked by blowing with the mouth or by intermittent blasts of a pump is unsuitable, for at the instant when the stream of air is interrupted, a certain quantity of liquid remains in the mouthpiece and is thrown out by the next blast of air in the form of coarse drops. Therefore, only continuously functioning atomizers can be used, preferably those types which are actuated by double rubber bellows. Only with such atomizers is it possibleto count with a fair degree of certainty on the production of a system of uniformly fine drops. Ammonia, which has previously been generally used in bromoil printing as a swelling agent, cannot be used to produce such a grain, because the ammonia gas volatilizes in great part in its passage through the air. A five per cent solution of potassium carbonate has been found to be most satisfactory.
The next question is at what stage of the process the swelled grain should be produced. Making it on the dry print is not permissible, because the droplets are taken up too greedily by the dry film and diffuse quickly and irregularly. The safest method of working is to place the bleached and dried print in cold water until it becomes limp, then blot it off until quite dry on the surface, and then treat it.
The practical method of producing the swelled grain is as follows: the print, which has been swelled in cold water and thoroughly dried off, is placed on a horizontal support and the atomizer set in action; as soon as it works with complete uniformity, it is passed back and forth across the print as evenly as possible under continuous observation, until the whole print is uniformly covered with a layer of extremely fine drops. The most important precaution is the continuous observation of the print while the spraying is being done, and this is best done by having the light fall on the print at as small an angle as possible. The practical way to do this is as follows: the print is laid on a table near the window. The operator sits in front of the window and gets both his eye and the atomizer very slightly above and in front of the print. Under these conditions there is a reflection of light in every single drop, whichmakes the observation of the distribution of the drops very easy. At the instant when the whole film seems to be uniformly covered with dew, the atomizer is quickly turned away from the print.
It is necessary to be thoroughly familiar with the action of the atomizer which is being used; with most atomizers the finest drops, on account of their lightness, fall downwards not very far from the mouthpiece, while others project their finest drops to a greater distance. The sprayed print, which naturally cannot be touched on the film side, must be left undisturbed for a certain period, which must be determined by experiment, for it depends, among other things, on the temperature of the room and the peculiarities of the paper which is used. An approximate idea may be had by considering these points: the longer the potassium carbonate solution lies on the print, the more the finest drops evaporate, while somewhat larger drops continue their action, so that the grain becomes coarser through longer action. A coarse grain can also be obtained by the use of coarse drops. If the drops are allowed to dry completely, the diffusion produced during this longer time results in an extra swelling of the whole film, without any grain effect.
After a sufficient time has elapsed, the potassium carbonate solution is removed from the film by rinsing or blotting off, and the print is swollen to the necessary degree. It is obvious that much lower temperatures must be used for this than if the print had not been treated with the graining solution, for the drops of the potassium carbonate solution cover a considerable fraction of the surface of the print. The fact that the greater portion of the surface of the print has been affected bythe spray makes it apparent that the alkaline solution cannot be replaced by a tanning solution, for the greater portion of the film would become less capable of swelling if such a solution were used, and therefore the latent tanned image would be destroyed. When the print is blotted off after swelling, it should show a scarcely visible relief when looked at by light falling from the side. The actual effect of the grain cannot be perceived until after the inking has been done.
The prints obtained in this way have, if the treatment has been successful, a very beautiful grained structure which extends over the lights and shadows quite evenly. It is possible to work on such a print quite normally without having to harmonize the degree of relief and the consistency of the ink with great accuracy. Especially is it possible to work up any given part of the print as long as desired with the brush without endangering the structure; on the contrary, it is improved by this treatment. For bromoil transfer, there are the following special advantages: every new transfer has exactly the same coarseness of grain, if this is imparted to the film once for all. In combination transfer, the grain persists in spite of the fact that several impressions are made on the same paper, because the swelled-grain elements are re-impressed in the same spots, if the registration is accurate.
Finally, it might be well to mention a few causes of failure which frequently occur in the first experiments. If the print appears to be covered with many small white spots at a certain distance apart but not in contact, the grain is too heavy and therefore does not take up enough ink. In this case, after rinsing, the print may be sprayed once more, carefully and not too heavily.
Larger white spots on the print show that when the grain was made large drops were produced by the atomizer. If such drops are noticed while spraying, the print should be immediately placed in water, dried off and sprayed again. If the print shows spots of rather large area which do not take ink and only show irregular ink spots here and there, it has been sprayed too long, that is, too much potash solution was applied, and the print is then useless as it cannot be corrected. In addition, such a print may be easily recognized after swelling, for a coarse grain pattern will be clearly visible on the film.
This swelled-grain process permits of very beautiful and characteristic results, yet, like all variations, it assumes a solid knowledge of the bromoil process, and must be practically used over and over again before it can be applied with certainty.
Mixing the Inks.—As has already been mentioned, we have at our command for bromoil not only black and brown, but any other color of ink in various shades.
As a rule, however, colored inks are somewhat too bright to be used pure; moreover, as a rule they can only be had commercially in a fairly soft consistency. This is actually no disadvantage, as one is often forced by the consistency of the ink to do what is counselled by good taste, that is to tone down the colored ink with hard black ink. It is not practicable to make a mixture of hard black ink with the colored with the knife on the palette, because it is difficult to hit the exact shade with certainty in this way. It is better when using green, blue or any other colored inkto mix the inks with the brush on the bromoil print itself. First one should go over the whole print very delicately with hard blackink and almost complete the drawing by hopping. Then the work should be continued as would be done if we were mixing hard and soft ink, merely replacing the soft black ink by the colored one. Then the work should be continued with the mixed ink; if the exact shade has not been hit, more or less of one or the other color is taken up by the brush until the desired color effect is obtained.
It is immaterial that those parts of the print on which one has tested the mixture show a little too bright or too dark a tone. By going over these again with the final correct color these places, though perhaps only after resoaking, will reach the proper tone, as the ink in the brush and that already on the print quickly mix to a uniform value.
If, in the course of the work, it appears that the mixture of this and the colored ink, the color tone adhere properly, it is not advisable to attempt further softening by the addition of soft black ink. By the mixture of this and the colored ink, the color tone already decided on will be altered. In such a case varnish or linseed oil must be used to soften the mixed ink.
Polychrome Bromoils.—Prints of two or more colors have previously been made, aside from the three-color process printed from three-color separation negatives, chiefly by the gum-bichromate process, by coating the print successively in different colors. After each coating the negative was printed, usually with masks, and the unnecessary parts of each colored coating were washed away during development. The preparation of a polychrome gum print is extremely tedious and uncertain. Not the least of the difficulties is the fact that inconsequence of the addition of the chromate the color effect cannot be determined with accuracy until the print is finished and the chromium salts are removed. Moreover, as a rule the color layers are perfectly distinct and the color mixtures formed by their juxtaposition must be accepted as they happen to come. A correction of the colors during the work is not easily effected.
The bromoil process, on the other hand, is in its very essence preëminently suitable for work in several colors, and offers all the possibilities which have previously been lacking. Without any special preliminary preparation the worker can apply any number of different colors to one and the same print at one sitting; he can harmonize them to each other during the progress of the work, combine neighboring colors by working them into each other on the print and easily correct any error that may occur.
It is true that the execution of a bromoil print in polychrome requires complete mastery of the process; an indispensable condition is a perfect command of the handling of brush and ink. Therefore, experiments in polychrome bromoil printing can only be recommended to those who have the monochrome process absolutely at their fingers’ tips.
If a negative is to be printed in several colors, the worker must first be absolutely clear as to his artistic scheme and know exactly in what color each individual part of the print must be executed; he must further be sure that the chosen colors harmonize with each other. He will not always be satisfied with the colors to be found in commerce, but must prepare the necessary inks for himself.
At first pictures should be chosen which contain large areas of uniform coloration, and as few colors as possible should be used. If you are not perfectly familiar with the print, it is necessary to have a proof as a guide, so as not to overstep the outlines of the different parts of the image which are to be individually colored.
The best way of setting to work is as follows: first select the color necessary for one or more of the larger areas of the picture, for instance green for the foliage, and work up these areas completely, until they have acquired the requisite vigor and detail. Such parts of the outlines as are adjacent to lighter, and hence more strongly swollen parts of the print, need be given no special attention, for color that does not belong on them may easily be removed again with the damp cloth, as previously mentioned. On the other hand it is well to work carefully with every outline which lies next to a darker part of the picture which is finally to be of another color. Here it is best not to apply the ink right up to the boundary, but to complete the inking with a small brush only after the adjacent parts are coated with their own color. If, however, such outlines are overstepped and the adjacent parts are colored with an ink that should not be applied to them, this should be removed with a very wet cloth, twisted to a fine point, by gentle rubbing. During this the print should remain on the pad. If the incorrectly inked portions are small in area the ink may be removed with art-gum.
When the first large areas are finished, the print should be again soaked in water, as it will probably have dried somewhat, then dried off, and another part of the picture dealt with, with a fresh color. If the adjacentcolors are properly chosen, the result, with objects which have no sharp outlines but merge into one another, will be that the adjacent parts will spontaneously blend into a harmonious transition of color. Parts of the picture which have the same basic color must not be done throughout in one and the same shade; thus large stretches of vegetation, which extend into the distance, should be executed in front in a yellowish green, and should be shaded back into a bluish green and insensibly into blue in the distance; such transitions can be effected without difficulty. If in the shadows there are small parts which require another color, they should be inked with a very bright color, which is then reduced by going over the whole surface at one time.
If it is found that a mistake has been made in any color, that part of the print may be cleared of ink as described onpage 72, and the work repeated. If it should finally appear that individual colors are too glaring or that the whole color scheme is too harsh, it is possible to go over individual parts or the whole print with some suitable color, so that the colors already applied are improved by a slight admixture of this covering color.
Such a procedure shows most emphatically what advantages there are in the possibility of mixing and toning down the colors on the print itself. As a rule, to tone down too bright colors, these portions or even the whole print are gone over with black ink, but if necessary other colors may be used for the same purpose.
Thus, for instance, a picture in which there are brown roofs, yellowish-green foliage, a sky of a pronounced blue shade and water of another blue, can be made harmonious by going over the whole print very lightlywith the blue of the sky. Thus the vegetation will lose some of its yellowish tone, and all other colors, without losing their own characteristics, will acquire a certain unity. If the sky parts of a picture are swollen too much, their uniform inking is not easy. Then it is advisable to ink up the sky only on the dry print, as is suggested onpage 112.
Because the tonality of any color, which has already been applied, can be altered with the brush, polychrome bromoil printing affords very great possibilities. Obviously good taste and a sound color sense are indispensable requisites, for without them there is danger of producing the undesirable effects characteristic of certain colored postcards. It may also be remarked that the colors, after defatting, have a somewhat less pronounced brilliancy, as they lose their gloss.
In polychrome bromoil printing, the choice of too small sizes is not to be recommended. The larger the picture is, the larger also are the areas which may be uniformly treated and, therefore, the easier it is to keep within the outlines.
Within the limits of this chapter, it is not possible to teach polychrome bromoil printing, only to outline its fundamentals. The unlimited freedom which it offers will certainly in the course of time produce many excesses in color. For this, however, we should condemn, not the process itself, but those who have abused it. In general it will be as well not to approach too closely the actual colors of the objects represented, but to work for the attainment of artistic effects. We must, however, in any case avoid even the most remote imitation of the painter; we cannot arrive at the solution of the problem of natural colors on paper by the polychrome bromoil process.