Llewellyn Berry
Hand Coloring and Photo Masking
Hand Coloring and Photo Masking
Posted on February 22, 2011by Llewellyn Berry
For my photographic development to arrive at simply wanting to see the world in black and white, I had to make many stops along the way. It is a natural progression and I suspect most artists as they search for their “voice” follow similar paths.
One of my stops was in the world of hand coloring. I was intrigued with this technique because it was used so often in the early days of photographic reproduction and portraiture that it had for me a certain allure. It was color but not real color it was hand colored – man-made color – added color. Okay, you get what I mean.
I used Marshal’s Photo Coloring Pencils. It is a box kit still available via the Internet.
It was so easy to use and the pencils were used on black and white photo prints. Take a black and white print put a little of the Marshall’s print preparation solution on the area you want to color, let it dry then use the pencil to color the area. Use a Q-tip to remove excess pencil residue. That’s it. Seriously; that’s all there is to it. It’s best to use a print made on fiber –based paper. It won’t work too well on resin coated stock.
Below is first the black and white photograph followed by the hand-colored version.
Ife Ajaniku
Black and White Gelatin Print
Washington, DC
c.1982
This is the hand colored print.
Ife Ajaniku
Hand Colored Black and White Gelatin Print
Washington, DC
c.1982
The incidences of color are subtle and exist in a netherworld context of black and white and added color.
The next photograph started out as a black and white gelatin print.
New Orleans Café Table Setting
Adams Morgan Neighborhood
Washington, DC
1984
From there I used a liquid photomask gelatin solution on the area of the flowers on the table.
I then Sepia Toned the entire print, but the mask prevented a change in the flowers.
After the Sepia Toning, I hand colored the area of the flowers on the table.
New Orleans Café Table Setting
Hand Colored, Sepia Toned Gelatin Print
Adams Morgan Neighborhood
Washington, DC
1984