The Process of Hand Coloring Photographs

To create a lively hand colored black and white photography, you need to start with a lively black and white photograph, containing a full tonal range. With the techniques I use, even very dark areas of a print will show the color of your paint, while retaining the details and textures of the photograph. I believe the better a print looks in black and white, the better of a hand colored image you can create.

When hand coloring a silver gelatin print, I use Ilford Multi Grade Fiber Gloss paper. For hand colored digital prints I use Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper. The general weight and surface of both these papers is similar. They are not a matte surface, which lessens the maximum density, but they are not a high gloss either.

I love experimenting so I am constantly trying new ideas, however my go-to paint is oils. From the late 1980's until 2017 I used Winsor & Newton oil paint. In 2017 I began making my oil paints with raw pigments and walnut oil.

In the past I used a Windsor & Newton oil painting medium to thin paints with. Unfortunately that medium is no longer available. After running out of my supply of that medium I used just walnut oil to thin my paints, which was satisfactory on silver gelatin prints, but once I began working on digital prints, using oil proved to be disastrous. Although I don't for sure exactly what was happening, the appearance was that the oil of paints seeped into the paper, leaving behind just the opaque powdery pigment. It essentially looked as if I had just used charcoal pastels. I now use home brewed mediums consisting of Damar Varnish, Walnut Oil, and occasionally Rectified Turpentine. My most common mix is 3 parts Damar to 1 part Walnut Oil. This mix does become tacky and unusable rather quickly, but I find working with only a little bit at a time works well for me. When I want something that lasts longer I have a mix 10 parts Damar, 5 parts Walnut Oil, and 3 part Rectified Turpentine. I also sometimes mix these to combinations together in different proportions.

I like starting with basic colors, and mixing the colors I want from those, a little at a time. My theory is this, each time you mix a color, it will be a little different. These differences in color add life to your work. An important part of this technique is to use each mix of color throughout the image. If you work on only sections of the image at a time, you risk there being obvious breaks from one color to the next, and you aren't getting the true benefit that slight variations in color provide.

The starting pigments that I make paint from are:
Opacity legend: T = transparent, SO = semi-opaque, O = opaque

Colors I Most Often Use:

Color	Opacity
Prussian Blue	T
Ultramarine Blue Deep	T
Primary Blue	SO
Lemon Yellow	T
Primary Yellow	SO
Alizarin Red Lake	T
Rose Madder Lake	SO
Raw Sienna	T

Other Colors I Have On Hand, But Are Rarely Used:

Color	Opacity
Caput Mortum	O
Burnt Umber	SO
Ivory Black	O
Titainum White	O
Primary Red	SO

I hand color photographs by painting in layers. On the first layer, paints are significantly thinned with medium and applied rather boldly like and under painting. Subsequent layers are also thinned with medium, but not as much and I become more and more detailed, though sporadic and blotchy, with the application. By building up the colors in layers, and having slight variations of colors as described about in "Paint Colors" the depth and liveliness of hand colored photographs is greatly increased.