8x10 Kodalith Film - REMARKABLE results.

[doer]

I used to do contact prints from (any format) negatives onto 8X10 sheets of Kodalith. Exactly the same as making a contact sheet, except you're left with the image in the frame having been stripped of any grey tones, and reduced to BLACK and WHITE in the most literal sense. And you have to cut out the strips so that they conform to the shape of regular exposed film, and will thus fit into a standard negative carrier. I'm not praising my own work when I say: The results were fantastic! The process could turn even the most pedestrian images into beautiful images.
In fact, when blown up to extremely large dimensions, say 4ftX4ft, they resemble paintings, complete with "brushstrokes"! I want to do this again, except now I want to project onto a canvas, and actually paint the image for real. Possibly working with liquid light, but that seems too close to painting-by-the-numbers. But first I need the 8x10 sheets of Kodalith to make the contacts. Is it available, and has anyone else tried this? Because my descriptive powers are limited, here's an example that was a rather dull portrait in 35 mm format. Have a look, and make the image as large as you can. The abstraction that results as it gets bigger is part of the beauty, I think.:

 

[Barry S]

Kodalith is no more, but there's plenty of litho film around.

http://www.ultrafineonline.com/ulhicoorlifi.html

 

[Shawn Dougherty]

I really like your example! I would love to see the results of your projection onto canvas.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

I'm interested to hear your methods and chemistry that you used with the Kodalith. I have a few boxes of 11X14 in the freezer, and I have played around with it in lith developer but the results were generally lacking contrast. Whether this is due to aged film or weak chemistry, I don't know.

 

[eddie]

I've been using Liquid Light on heavily textured watercolor paper. I'm then using oils/pencils to add color. Not sure if that's what you have in mind, but here's what it looks like:

 

[jpa]

Man - Kodalith the the BEST. I loved the stuff. Used it for high contrast stuff like you, as well as with developers such as D-76, and the results always turned out (in the end) excellent.

 

[AgX]

But first I need the 8x10 sheets of Kodalith to make the contacts. Is it available, and has anyone else tried this?

As alternative to the gone Kodalith one might use

Rollei ATO 2.1 (high-contrast, panchromatic, available in most different sizes)

http://www.macodirect.de/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Rollei%20ATO&sort=2a&language=en