Coloring materials and options = infinite… or close to it.

Once again, Freestyle is the place to go:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/category/57-Photo-Artistry/Handcoloring

There are many options/variations.

Dick Blick is another longstanding artist supply store:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/marshalls-photo-oil-sets/

Here’s something new… that I am not gonna buy:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/spotpen-handcoloring-pens/

‘SpotPen’s unique formula penetrates the emulsion layer on all photographic surfaces and leaves no residue. Work on any photographic surface, glossy or matte…’

The colors baffle me, i learned traditional colors: cadmiums, umbers, viridian, cerulean, ultramarine.

“Butterscotch, Lime, Peach,…” – what the hell are these??

Anyway, there are tons of other coloring options out there, anything is fair game.

My kit?

It’s time tested (sort of), it’s in the banner above.

Water colors:

I was given a set of basic primary colors by a photog. who was giving up analog some years ago. 

His loss? My gain!

“basic black, primary blue, primary red, basic flesh,  primary yellow,  basic brown,  basic blue, basic green” 

You can’t get much much more *basic*, or ‘down’ than that, can you?

Oil colors:

This page says it is a search result for Marshall’s, but shows something else, called Arista oil colors:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/search?q=marshall+oil+color

I bought a simpler set of basic oil colors, in tubes.

French ultramarine, burnt umber, yellow ochre, Viridian,  Cadmium red,  cadmium yellow, titanium white.

Learn some color theory, you can mix anything from this.

Plus the usual:

Cotton balls, Q tips, and some linseed oil, which can prime the surface, make it easier to blend and ‘work with it’ a while, but can also make maximum saturation harder.

Keep some Kleenex/toilet tissue around for immediate use, as necessary.

And perhaps you might want to get some Marlene, which will erase any oils. But you’ll have to re-prime with linseed oil, if you are using it.

And yes, for both the above, have a mixing dish or pallete to work with.

For oil colors? I have an 8×10 photo paper box, i just put a sheet of letter size paper in it, use it it to mix most anything up.

I also have a fistful of Marshall oil pencils, Since they are 30 years old, they’ve hardened and don’t work very well. They only worked on the toothiest papers to begin with anyway.

Here’s something recently done that’s a combination of watercolor and oils, which I’ve just started doing in the last few years.

Next time round, techniques is the topic.

Here’s a couple of interesting links for the month’s history fix:

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/what-instagram-would-have-looked-like-in-the-1800s/

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/19th-century-hand-coloured-photos-of-japan/