For a rainy day.. combining the dots.

As I was working on printing cyanotypes with the Inkjet printer, I was doing some experiments with the reactivity of developer and fixer on photo paper in light condition.
As I was dipping first some dots and streaks with a brush, getting a feel for the concentration directly on photo paper, I thought why not do something more than just that and using the developer as paint.
After some sheets and getting some feel for how it worked I painted some simple flowers.
The process is simple, I am using FOMA Retro320 developer which I no longer use for film developer, and paint this in that concentrations with a brush directly on FOMA Varian 312 a semi matt paper.
After the image is what I want, I rinse in water and put in normal fixer for photo paper, then rinse with water as usual.



After having done a few I could not resist adding some color with FAC + KFerro for Blue, and the "FerroBlend" mix + KFerro for Red-Browne.





OK missing was yellow, so for that I used Turmeric extract, this is a bit an odd one because it is organic, but it does the trick.



Taking it another step, and using and developer and fixer to make the image, then putting rinsing in water,

developing in the retro320 developer till it is at a point I like it, and then after rinsing fixing and rinsing.



If you have the chemicals, it is a simple process, it is fun and can be done in the light, no darkroom required. The coloring is very intense and as normal the blue for the cyanotype will darken slightly the next days.
The blacks as can be expected are deep black.

For the coloring I mainly just sprayed it on, kept the tray at an angle to keep the color on the correct side of the paper, then rinse and do the next color.

Meanwhile I know I will for using developer in a cartridge, I have to use either a high concentration or make the photo paper more alkaline first.

I thought it was interesting to mention here, not sure what to call the process, it is a mix of everything. But worth to try on a rainy day, as you see slowly developing the painting in front of you while working in normal light in the room. And a quick end result within an hour.


Cheers
Jan.

I have a Henry Holmes Smith print that was made with no camera or film. It was made with just chemicals on photographic paper.

There is enough artistic power in working directly on photographic materials to attract serious prizemoney. It surely is a genre that could merit dedicated exploration.
Here is an example from a few years ago that generated acclaim and controversy:

Interesting work Jan, I like the last one quite a lot.

For various shades of sepia, you can consider using Thiourea toner.

There are several variations to this theme that one can explore. Here is some interesting work by the famous Sugimoto san:

Thank you for adding some links and names of artists, after the fact I have been trying to see if this way of using the paper and chemicals is more common, but seems very limit and niche. However it is relative simple and fool proof, and can be done without a darkroom.

Question is what is it, chemigram, or simply a drawing on photo paper with chemicals it has lots of potential though for some creative use.

Jan de Jong said:

Thank you for adding some links and names of artists, after the fact I have been trying to see if this way of using the paper and chemicals is more common, but seems very limit and niche. However it is relative simple and fool proof, and can be done without a darkroom.

Question is what is it, chemigram, or simply a drawing on photo paper with chemicals it has lots of potential though for some creative use.

Click to expand...

Chemigrams are 'simply' drawings on photo paper with chemicals. They have a very long history.