Hand-coloring BW prints?

[zburch]

I'd like to try hand-coloring some of my black and white fibre prints? I would like to be able to "mix" the colors, like water colors(instead of using pencils). Any suggestions on what products are best and what the process is?

Amy

www.amybphoto.com

 

[photodog]

Marshall's Photo oils are probably the best. Do a search on the internet, available at art supply stores or online.

 

[payasam]

I remember seeing people do this sort of thing in the 1950s. They would wet their brushes and touch them to little squares of coloured paper. It follows that the dyes or pigments were water based. I should imagine that mixing them would not have been simple. Can't recall a brand name, sorry. No idea either if this will help.

 

[Poptart]

I have a set of Marshall's pencils but they don't have instructions; the pencils may be blendable, tho, because they include cotton balls.
I also have a set of Pentel Aquash crayons that are meant to be blended with water. You could probably use something like that but the problem may be permanency. You'd probably have to frame the prints under glass too to keep the surfaces dry and safe.

 

[ZorkiKat]

I'd like to try hand-coloring some of my black and white fibre prints? I would like to be able to "mix" the colors, like water colors(instead of using pencils). Any suggestions on what products are best and what the process is?

Amy

www.amybphoto.com

As others have said, Marshalls are good- but these are oils.

If you want watercolours, try looking for "Peerless" transparent water colours. These are still available from art shops. They come in attractive, 19th century style booklets!-
Yes, they come in booklets, for the colours are stamped on sheets of paper. Bits of paper are torn off and placed in little wells where the colours dissolve. Or else moist brush tips pick up the colour and then transferred into the wells. These type of watercolour had been around since the 19th century for colouring photos, lanternslides, and yes, even movies! 😉

OR you could also try using foodcolouring dyes. McCormicks make 'kits' wihich contain green, blue, red, and yellow sets from which various hues can be mixed from.

See this site for examples of hand-coloured photos using ordinary food dyes:

http://www.pbase.com/zorki/hand_coloured

Pic of "Peerless" transparent dye booklet below.

 

[payasam]

Wow. Not only is the stuff I wrote about still to be had, ZorkiKat also has its name. It's transparent (translucent, really, the same effect as gels most of the time) colours you want, which oils tend not to be. Mixing, come to think of it, may not be so difficult if you do it carefully on an easel. Poptart's worry is genuine, but there are ways to keep your colouring safe. Framing under glass (window mount) is the obvious one. There are also colourless sprays available which form a thin layer over a surface. You'll probably be best off with a non-glossy one, but that's a matter of taste. As a matter of interest, hand colouring B & W photos is something of an industry in my country. I haven't bothered to explore the thing, since the colours used are generally blindingly garish.

 

[ZorkiKat]

Wow. Not only is the stuff I wrote about still to be had, ZorkiKat also has its name. It's transparent (translucent, really, the same effect as gels most of the time) colours you want, which oils tend not to be. Mixing, come to think of it, may not be so difficult if you do it carefully on an easel. Poptart's worry is genuine, but there are ways to keep your colouring safe. Framing under glass (window mount) is the obvious one. There are also colourless sprays available which form a thin layer over a surface. You'll probably be best off with a non-glossy one, but that's a matter of taste. As a matter of interest, hand colouring B & W photos is something of an industry in my country. I haven't bothered to explore the thing, since the colours used are generally blindingly garish.

Marshalls Oil colours are truly transparent- in fact, they supply an opaque extender to render their paints more opaque. They also supply oil-soluble (really turpentine/linseed oil solution) pencils. BTW, some art colour pencils are oil-based and dissolve in such (Marshall's PM) solutions.

Oils tend to be easier to use, and are recommended for beginners. Its a matter of rubbing and blending with fingers, cotton buds, and even tissue paper. Mistakes can be rubbed off or removed entirely with the PM solution. The oils remain workable for about two days, after which they become more or less permanent. Colours stay on the surface of the print. With oil colouring, a matte or rough textured fibre-based print is a necessity.

Transparent dyes can be more difficult to work with. Mistakes can only be removed by washing prints, and in doing so, will remove the 'good parts' as well.
The colours are also applied whilst the print is wet. Brushes are best used rather than cotton tips. Colours are applied in several thin 'washes' rather than one stroke.

Oil and watercolours tend to be permanent. The easy stand-by, food colouring dyes tend to be very unstable. They would fade in a matter of months with displayed prints (food dyes don't need to be fast or fade-resistant - they were meant to be eaten in some form or another! 😀 ).

The way the colours look- natural or garish, subtle or saturated, wash or layered, depends on the colourist. The colouring media used more or less lend themselves quite well to many application methods which in turn lead to the different looks.

Jay 🙂

 

[Socke]

My father and grandfather did that up to the late 60s. One reason was, that handcoloured prints are easyer to match on offsett presses than screened slides.

They used mostly airbrushes with Schmincke & Keilitz protein inks and Gouache and cut masks from celluloid. Some parts where masked with some liquid which could be removed like a rubber film when dry.

My father was very excited when he saw what he can do with Photoshop 2.5 on the Mac I bought in 1993 🙂