The course starts and our first task is to work on cyanotypes. I know already I’m going to love this.

To create artwork for a cyanotype, open an image in Photoshop. Under image choose grayscale>bitmap>300dpi. Method diffusion dither. This breaks the image up into dots. Save the file as a tiff and then under adjustments choose negative. The image then needs to be flipped horizontally so that it will print the right way round.

The chemicals needed to coat the paper are, 25grams of Ferric Ammonium Citrate, this is mixed with 100ml of water in a plastic measuring cylinder. Then mix 10 grams of Potassium Ferricyanide with 100ml of water in a separate measuring cylinder. The chemicals are then mixed together and the paper is coated, it will look yellow in colour. It is best to do this in low light conditions so that the chemicals down’t start to expose. The amount mixed will be enough to coat approximately 50 A4 sheets of paper.

The paper needs to dry in a dark place, or use a hair dryer. After the sheets are dry they can then be exposed with the acetate face down on the paper in the exposure unit for approximately 10 minutes at 75 units. I was to experiment with exposure times at home in sunlight during lockdown but that comes later.

An early cyanotype of my mum.

Abstract images can be made from coating an acetate with printing ink, then rubbing some off with a rag and adding drops of oil and paraffin. Thanks to Gareth Berwyn in the City Lit print room for those ideas.

There are a multitude of ideas to be explored with cyanotypes. I begin to create images in Photoshop using layers and my found images.

Overlaying acetates on each other, the images started to become surreal.