Blue print

At the photography workshop, I experienced one of the oldest imaging methods: blue print.

First I was introduced to the raw stones of the mineral pigments used in blue print.

The chart below shows the chemicals that are used in blue print.

I then viewed some images made using the blue print process.

The process of blue print is very simple, first brush the paper with a special chemical, then make some masking above and put it under strong ultraviolet rays, after washing, the uncovered part will turn blue, while the masked part will stay white, thus revealing the shape of the masked part.

There are a variety of ways to shade the surface of a blue print, either by cutting out paper, or by drawing shapes on transparent paper with a thick black marker and covering them. It is also possible to cover it with some translucent, textured material.

I used a transparent paper painting method and an overlay of textured material to create the blue tan image. The end result is noticeable.

Although I may not use the blue-tanning process directly in this project, this workshop has given me a deeper understanding of raw image technology.