Photographs by Frank

While yesterday’s anthotypes were ‘cooking’ I hand-colored four more prints using watercolors. The prints shown here* are all older images from my library. The images are four by five inches on five by seven inch paper.

The image of the door (which was originally made in January 2018) is unusual, in that I have no recollection of where this exposure was made. For the large majority of my ‘successful’ photographs, I have a pretty good, if not an exact, memory of where and when I made the exposure… but not this one!

Jane’s Barn, Too (from August 2015) is trivially easy to place. It is our next-door neighbors barn that I have photographed many times. I have included the ‘Too’ in its title because I used a very different view of this barn as my 2020 Winter Solstice print.

Flag and Shovel (from January 2020) is also easy for me to place as I have passed by this house in Deering many times. I also have a clear recollection of making the USA, VT (September 2016) exposure on a meander through the towns west of Brattleboro in southern Vermont, although I am not sure if I could find the exact spot without some effort.

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* In addition to the prints shown here, I also made a larger (six by seven-and-a-half on eight by ten paper) of “Flag & Shovel”.

I haven’t made any new exposures in the two weeks since we got back from Monhegan. However, I have been busy photographically speaking.

In anticipation of World Anthotype Day, I have been experimenting with making anthotypes again. I have made a couple of nice photograms using turmeric. Additionally, I am experimenting with other pigments for anthotype. Currently, I am exposing prints using an extract from red cabbage. I am also testing an extract from paprika. All except the turmeric are very experimental. I’ll report here if I have any success.

Additionally, I have been using watercolor paints to hand color a few of the photos from Monhegan.

While on Monhegan, I met Corlis Carroll, an artist who specializes in hand painted photographs. Corlis does not have a website, but here is an article about her. My previous hand-coloring work used colored pencils blended with a mixture of turpentine and vegetable oil. Inspired by Corlis, I have been experimenting with watercolor.

The first two images shown below are inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle Biblio paper*. They are about as large as I make for hand-coloring (6×7.5 inches and 6.5 inches square, respectively; both on an 8×10 inch sheet). The third print is on Strathmore Hot Press watercolor paper and is 4×5 inches on a 5×7 inch sheet.

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* I really like hand-coloring prints made on Biblio, which has a wonderful ‘feel’ about it. However, I am getting a bit of buckling (which is evident in the scans) of the paper with watercolors. Biblio is a thin-ish printmaking paper so it is not intended to ‘see’ much water. I am hoping that the buckles can be removed/minimized by pressing the prints for awhile.

Here are two more hand-colored inkjet prints made in the past couple of days.

Both of these were printed on using Epson’s Advanced Black and White mode on 200 gsm hot press Fabriano Artistico paper. The paper is about as traditional a water color paper as you can find.

The bird houses were colored using Faber Castell water color pencils and blended using, unsurprisingly, water!

The shovels were colored using Prismacolor Premium pencils and blended with a 1:1 mixture of turpentine and vegetable oil as I have mentioned previously.

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All of the hand-colored images I’ve shown thus far have been printed on 5×7 inch paper. The image size is 4×5 inches or 4.5 inches square. My standard size(s) for small prints. (I’ve cropped away some of the blank paper from the scanned images displayed here.)

I am evolving a method for making this type of print. I start by making one or more “drafts” on an inexpensive paper (Fabriano Studio) in which I experiment with colors and blending. I make notes on the back of these drafts as to the colors used and other details. My intent is to file away the last of these drafts in case I want to go back and make another copy at a later date.

Next, I make an artist’s proof on a nicer paper at the 5×7 inch size. This is an object that I consider finished and worthy of matting and display.

Only at this point do I consider a larger print either on the same paper as the ‘proof’ print, or if I am feeling adventurous on a different paper.

Thus far, I have made copies of the above two photos on 8×10 inch paper. The image size is 7×9 inches, or about three times the area of the smaller prints. These take a lot more time to complete… as one would expect!

I guess that the next step is to consider editioning. Although I am not sure what I would do with even a small edition of a single print.