Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. It is one of the first form of photography favoured by Anna Atkins. Blue is my favourite colour and I like the experimental side of using found objects or past drawing and using them as a negative and then create a physical print with a sun exposure. It means I need to collect during my walks, build a little scene on paper and observe the weather to work out the exposure time and maybe the impossibility of doing a print in that day. The unexpected side of it is exciting but with more experience I hope soon to be able as well to control the light and produce large images.

I am still a bit perplexed on the following points: i used watercolour paper but it curls when coated and I now found out after speaking to Jacquard that I should use printmaking paper. yesterday I used Strathmore printmaking during a workshop and it reacts differently.

Secondly my brush leaves stripes and that may come more evident with the new cyan formula so from now on I will use a sponge. I tried on Wednesday and it worked well.

I expose outdoor, not with UV light so timing is changing and I may need to do s stripe test to figure out the exposure for my paper , let’s s say for a sunny day.

Must handle the paper with immaculate hand!

Beware of shadows cast by building when the sun turns.

There is something as overexposure that can solarize my prints so not forgetting the print in the garden for too long may help the process.

If I use a digital negative, I need to carefully check highlights and shadows.

When I can handle all that easily my next step will be trying toning. I already used tea but not long enough so it didn’t mark enough the paper. Maybe because it was Roibos.

I did a workshop yesterday at Hampstead School of art with the great Emma Pegg. It was quite experimental and I had lots of fun.

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