Starting Hand Coloring

I'd like to get started with hand coloring. My issue are: One, I'm not particularly handy with pencil or brush (there's a reason I chose the camera). I did some cartooning in high school, so I can probably "color in the lines" -- but that's about it. Also, I don't see myself doing this very often (at first), so I don't want to make a big initial investment in media that's going to dry up or otherwise go bad. I was thinking colored pencils might be a good start. The paper I've chosen is Ilford MG Art 300, for it's classy appearance and toothy texture.

My searching hasn't turned up many examples of this combination (pencil + Art 300), so if someone has something to share along these lines, I'd be most interested to see it. I'm also interested in recommendations for media (perferably archival) -- if it's colored pencils or something else.

Thanks.

I do a lot of hand coloring, but have only used Art 300 a handful of times. Because of the rougher surface, it's harder (not impossible) to get smooth, even tones. If you have a smoother, matte surface paper, I'd recommend starting with that. MGIV, or MGIVWT are perfect surfaces for hand coloring.

Pencils are a good way to start. I like to use a duller point (rather than sharpened) to apply the color. I have a piece of 220 grit sandpaper I use to dull the point. When the color is applied to the print, it will be uneven. To even the tones, I use Eraserstik style erasers to smooth it out. A light hand is necessary. I also use the sandpaper to clean the residue off of the erasers.

Any colored pencil will work. Marshall's, Prismacolor, Crayola, etc. Walnut Hollow makes some nice oil pencils, too.
Here's one I did on Art 300 (I have many more examples in the Gallery done on other papers, mostly MGIV and papers hand coated with Liquid Light.)
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Walmart or the like can furnish you w/ some cheap oil or water colour tube kits. I prefer that to pencils. You can just use a Q-tip to put the colours on with. Mistakes can be wiped off quickly w/ the oils. For large areas use a large soft brush, cotton ball, or whatever. If you're using a water based paint you're really going to have to be quick. I assume one could use acrylics if thinned enough, but again, they dry really fast. The oil paints will allow you to push things around at your leisure. Your local library will have good books w/ illustrations that help (there's always youtube videos as well). Just start w/ photos that are duds until you get the feel of it, then bring out the good stuff. It helps to spend 20 minutes or so doing warm ups before getting started on the good ones to get into the swing of it.

I really wish I was in PA now - we could meet up. It's easier to show you than to explain in text.
I've used Art300 with ordinary colored pencils (Prismacolor brand, IIRC, and possibly fairly old) - eddie is right on how getting it smooth is tougher than on regular paper. But I was able to get some I liked, I think. My best ones have been with Marshall's photo oils on Ilford FB (both matte and glossy - the matte takes more color, but has a duller look overall). The general concept is that you can always add more color, but it's tougher to take some off. Start with a light touch. I use make-up applicators that are like fine pointed Qtips when I use oils.

I can't help with the archival end of it - I just try to make sure the print is good first.

There might be examples in my gallery here and a page of them on my website. Holler if you need details on any of them.

I often hand color photographs. I either use mat paper or spray the finished print with a mat clear coat. Then I use Prisma artists pencils. http://www.amazon.com/Prismacolor-P...qid=1414882674&sr=1-7&keywords=artist+pencils. I also use ordinary Crayola crayons.
You don't have to be real good, just color the areas you want. Especially with the crayons, if you don't like what you did, a little solvent, like mineral spirits on a cloth will wipe it right off.
A good book will help. Check this: http://www.amazon.com/Handcoloring-...888&sr=1-1&keywords=hand+coloring+photography
Look on my web site for my hand colored photos.
Also, don't think you have to color the whole thing. I think just selective areas are more effective.
Just experiment and have fun!

bsdunek said:

A good book will help. Check this: http://www.amazon.com/Handcoloring-...888&sr=1-1&keywords=hand+coloring+photography
Look on my web site for my hand colored photos.
Also, don't think you have to color the whole thing. I think just selective areas are more effective.
Just experiment and have fun!

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A pity that the books are so expensive at one cent I agree about being selective. One of the best coloured prints I ever saw was two London buses crossing a bridge over the Thames with only the buses in colour.

It must have required a lot of patience, small brushes and probably a magnifier but the buses really jumped out at the viewer.

pentaxuser

Thanks, everyone. So many options. I think I'm going to start with a 24 pack of Prismacolor pencils. Watercolors are appealing too, because the look I'm after is one where the colors add some separation and interest without being overwhelming.

The suggested book is on order from library.

Bethe, I'm sorry we never hooked up while you were here. I would love to see how you work in this medium. Your hand-colored flowers are beautiful.

Eddie, your stuff is also amazing. I enjoyed perusing your gallery images. Lots of inspiring ideas there. Thanks for the link.

I once used Marshall's Photo Oil Colors, without any experience at all, I got magical results. I see they are pretty expensive (about 20 US dollars for the cheapest set), but don't think they ever "go bad" do they?

Bill- they can dry up over time. As long as the tube is pliable, they're OK.
Any oil paints will work. I use Winsor& Newton, Grumbacher, Pebeo, etc., as well as Marshall's. They all work well.

We will be back. I just don't know exactly when, yet.

Good news, Bethe!

So I'm back to this -- still like the idea of pencils, though to Eddie's point, using pencils on a textured paper like Art 300 will slow things down. I see Prismacolor makes a watercolor pencil. It's applied like colored pencil, but responds to water once applied in that you can move it around with a wet brush. Thoughts?

bvy said:

Good news, Bethe!

So I'm back to this -- still like the idea of pencils, though to Eddie's point, using pencils on a textured paper like Art 300 will slow things down. I see Prismacolor makes a watercolor pencil. It's applied like colored pencil, but responds to water once applied in that you can move it around with a wet brush. Thoughts?

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I haven't tried those on the Art300, but I want to. My suggestion is to make several decent prints of some good guinea pig type shots. Don't worry about them coming out as masterpieces and just try some different things. Even if they don't work, you've got them as pieces to try things on later. Somewhere, I have a sheet where I printed something like a test sheet, but with no negative/image and then colored on it and wrote which color for each. I use that as a reference when I pick colors. Using a sheet like that can give you practice and examples and there isn't any pressure for perfection.
I used watercolor pencils (different brand, I think) on regular paper a few times and wasn't always happy with how it looked after adding water, but it was the first time (and maybe last) that I used them. My advice, if I'm remembering accurately, is to use water sparingly.
There are also pastel pencils that apply like chalk or pastels (kinda), but have a good point when sharpened and aren't messy to hold. They work well on Art300, I think.

winger said:

My suggestion is to make several decent prints of some good guinea pig type shots. Don't worry about them coming out as masterpieces and just try some different things. Even if they don't work, you've got them as pieces to try things on later. Somewhere, I have a sheet where I printed something like a test sheet, but with no negative/image and then colored on it and wrote which color for each. I use that as a reference when I pick colors. Using a sheet like that can give you practice and examples and there isn't any pressure for perfection.

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I save all of my reject prints. I keep them in a box, in my coloring room. When I want to see the effect of using color over a particular tone, I find a reject print with a matching tone, and experiment before committing to a good print. If I were less lazy, I'd print step wedges, and color them as reference chips.

Sorta like this, Eddie? I did this really early on in my coloring days when I tried really hard to not have rejects and worried about each piece of paper I used. Using real prints is a slightly better idea, but I can be a real nerd sometimes. This example only has Marshall's oils on it. The extra blobs in a few spots are some metallic acrylics. While looking for this, I found some Art300 ones and I'm fairly sure I used smooth colored pencils on them - not bad.

Yeah, Bethe. The important thing is to see the effect the gray tones (in the original print) will have on the paint color. Your reference will give you that information.

I am a big fan of Eddies work and all hand coloured prints.. I have found that I am not good at the colouring part.. I can't keep between the lines, but I am pretty good at making the prints for hand colouring.. I have a client in Alberta who had me make 40 separate prints which he then hand coloured , I thing the whole installation sold out. For that I used Art 300 and we found that this paper was great for his needs, I think he was using Marshall oils.. I am to make a series of 40 x50 inch murals for another project later this winter , yet another installation. This time he may be present on site while I print and I can hopefullly see him work on a couple of the prints while he is here.

I have started making Tri Colour pigment prints over palladium lately, and they are completely in my wheelhouse.. All my colour solarizations will be eventually made into permanant colour photographs... Though I am using the dreaded PS to make my negs(shhhhhhh don't wake up to apug police) I am completely thinking hand coloured bw printmaking methods of the past.
One interesting adaptation to the process that I think you hand colourists will like is this.

As you know different colour within scenes record on film sometimes to your dismay the same density , and also to your dismay darker on print than you wish.. This forces you to colour over a dark area and sometimes you would wish that you could separate these densitys and colours out more.

My new (darkside) method is to change the densitys of the various main colours I want to bring out by BW conversion techniques. This gives me a base Palladium image with areas within printing lighter Or darker than one would normally see using the (good apug) method. What then happens is that when you multiple print the three other separation negatives over top the colour has somewhere to land and is much more correct to the original scene.
These prints are very much like hand coloured silver prints using Art 300 and a good hand... except that I am using the (cursed digital) workflow to get negatives that print well in register.
think dye transfer prints + a palladium print below to give the image detail


One thing that I have learned since my first hand coloured print. 1973 is that every image in colour has an underlining black and white detail image. this underlining image controls your contrast density and your sharpness...

sorry for putting us all at risk by talking about the darkside but I thought you hand colouring fans would like this one.

As a very simple exercise, I started my high-school students on hand coloring using Crayola waterbase markers on RC paper. The markers themselves are too bold, but a wet brush (we used a drop of Photo-flo in 16 oz of water) touched to the marker and then applied to the print worked really quite well. the results were subtle and easily managed. I don't know about the long term life of these, since there is no claim from Crayola that the markers are anything like archival but for practice with the process it was really quite inexpensive and effective.

I've done a fair amount of hand coloring, although never tried it on Art 300 paper, only semi matt. I don't really like Marshall Oils, although some people do great work with them. I didn't like how long it took to dry. I used colored pencils and the two chemicals with Marshall Oils pretty successfully. Other thing I've been working with lately is Photospeed Fotodyes. You dilute the dye down with water and build up the color and can get very even colors to them. Works very well with smaller areas, but I don't know if I would want to try real big prints with them.

So I'm trying the Prismacolor pencils with the Art300 paper, and what I'm finding is that the color seems to "lay on top" -- i.e. I can cover the darkest shadows of the print with a light colored pencil. In fact, the lightest colors seem to show up better in the shadows than they do in the highlights. I must be doing something wrong. Do the Eraserstick pencils address this problem?

I don't know why the colors are showing up more in the shadows. I generally don't color in deep shadow, preferring to put color in Zone IV and higher. If you do have an eraserstik, have you tried the smoothing technique? It can make color "pop" a bit more, which may increase the apparent color in the highlights. Oils might be a better bet, but my oil technique is pretty aggressive, and tore the Art300 surface.
As I said, though, Art300 isn't my favorite choice for hand-coloring. I think it's too fragile for heavier pencil work. When I've wanted a textured paper, I've had better results with watercolor paper coated with Liquid Light.

Thanks, Eddie. I think you're right about the Art 300. But before I move on, I at least want to be able to do what you're doing with pencils on this paper. In my case, the colors are showing up in the shadows in much the same way white crayon would on black paper. That's not to say I'm coloring shadow areas. Rather, the colors aren't blending with darker shades in highlight areas -- wrinkles in clothes, shadows around facial features, etc.

These are the pencils I'm using:
http://www.amazon.com/Prismacolor-Premier-Colored-Assorted-1774800/dp/B003YDYO8E/

Would an art eraser or kneaded eraser also work to blend and more evenly distribute the pigment? Like you say, I don't think this paper can hold up to heavy rubbing.

I don't see any reason those pencils shouldn't work. I use a lot of Prismacolors, but I'm not sure if mine are soft core. My favorites are oil pencils- Marshall's or Walnut Hollow. They do seem to blend a bit easier. I'm wondering what eraser you're using to blend. I use a variety of erasers, depending on what I'm doing. For blending, I use the pink tipped ones. They're softer than the white tipped Eraserstik- style erasers. I use the harder, white tipped ones for cleaning the borders, by erasing along a straightedge. Also, are you keeping the eraser clean? If it's not clean, it will just keep smudging the color around. Every couple of strokes, I'll wipe it on my jeans, or a piece of 220 grit sandpaper.
I find the erasers to be very important in getting the results I want. Some (even the same brand) perform differently. I'll often try a few before coming up with one that feels just right- it's a real Goldilocks moment...
When I started hand-coloring, I could get a dozen eraserstiks for about $7.00, at Office Depot or Staples. Then, with the demise of the typewriter, they went out of production, so I stocked up before the ebay prices went through the roof. I probably have about 1000 now. Last I checked, Faber-Castell still made the Perfection 1056, which are pink tipped, and work well for blending.
A bit of my stash:

Blick still sells the 1056: http://www.dickblick.com/products/faber-castell-perfection-eraser-pencils/
They also have white tipped ones: http://www.dickblick.com/products/faber-castell-perfection-eraser-pencil-with-brush/