Chemical Painting

I’ve been putting together my portfolio and trying to organize work to make it seem like I’m an artist, but in the midst of work, I found some fun things to do in the darkroom, like the Sabattier effect, photograms, and Lumen prints, all of which I’ve written about in posts previously.

The newest of experiments is chemical painting. I think there are more than one ways and different chemicals to paint onto a print, but I did a very simple print and painted on the developer. After doing a test strip to find my exposure, I simply placed a sheet of paper in my easel, set the timer, exposed, then, instead of putting the paper into the developer, I grabbed a paintbrush and practiced painting the developer directly onto the paper.

Using more or less developer will affect the final print, brush strokes in different areas can be a fun experiment, and using different sized brushes can help paint on the chemicals for a specific look. There are plenty of ways to go about this, and it brings in some creativity for when simply making print after print gets to be a bit mundane.

Stop, fix, and wash when finished, and hang dry as usual after painting on the chems.

Brick and Drain

Pipes

Chemical Painting

Chemical Painting

Paintbrush and Developer

I’ve also been working on researching different films to take with me on a trip to Mexico in May. I’ve decided on black and white and color films, just to make sure I can capture all the vibrant colors of buildings in Mexico. I’m not entirely sure which camera, lenses, or really anything else. But I might take out all the cameras and shoot a roll in each just to decide which would be easiest and best to take.

Which films and favorite camera do you take on trips? Leave some suggestions! I’m diving into it pretty hard since the trip is only a few weeks away 🙂