HAND-COLORED PHOTOGRAPHY

Hand-colored or hand-tinted photographs can be traced back to the day of the daguerreotype, before the advent of color photography.  Artists were hired by many photographic studios to apply transparent layers of thinned oil or water-based paints to brown-toned, black-and-white photographs. These photographs were printed on fiber-based paper and sepia toned in a darkroom.

Jane’s hand-colored images were made the same way until digital technology came about.  Most of her early images were made for the greeting card industry and licensed to greeting card companies. Many sold out during the first year of distribution.

Jane still makes hand-colored images but uses new digital technology for printing.  No mixing of chemicals, just printing from an ink jet printer and hand coloring with new media, such as colored pencils, pastels and alcohol inks. The look is the same but the technology makes the task much easier.