DRAWING WITH LIGHT - VAN DYKE BROWN
With POP / Printing Out Paper using the Van Dyke Brown method
2 day workshop
This workshop takes a fresh approach to drawing and printmaking using the medium of photographic printing. You will collage with translucent tissue papers to create a still life composition or image referenced from your sketchbooks to create a three - four tone image built up with layers of paper.
These collages are contacted printed onto POP-Printing Out Paper which is sensitive to UV light. You can see the print darken without the need for developing chemicals. The resulting photographic print is unique.
The original POP papers are no longer available to purchase. You will therefore learn to prepare your own POP papers using the Van Dyke Brown method. We will look at its history and method and undertake some initial experiments. Whilst your papers are drying you will work from a still life to create your collage. To achieve the best result we will study the shape of objects and how they are defined by light falling onto them. You will learn to compose with light and shadows. This will be a fun approach to drawing, printmaking and photography and will help you to develop your observational skills and challenge your approach to materials.
Cost
£180 for two days, which includes materials. Numbers of participants are limited to 4. Individual tuition is £200 per day. Dates on request.
All prices exclude VAT.
History
The original POP papers were coated with silver-chloride emulsions and prints were produced by contact printing with negatives by the action of light alone, until the image was wholly visible. This is in contrast to the 'developing out' method which requires additional chemistry to develop the latent image.
Van Dyke Brown, also known as Kallitype, is an iron-salt photographic process which is also a 'printing out' method using ferric oxalate in combination with silver nitrate. It produces a rich deep range of colours from black, to brown, sepia, purple or maroon.
The Kallitype / Van Dyke Brown was devised by W. J Nichol in 1899, derived from the work of Sir John Frederick William Herschel, an English polymath, in the 1840s.
