Watercolor Sunday

I opened up the granulating watercolors I purchased in Japan from both Harmonia (blue box set) and Holbein (limited edition full set of 2025 Japan-only colors, which took me two trips to obtain the complete collection as individual small tubes).   I painted samples on both Arches paper (which pills too easily) and black watercolor paper (Clairefontaine and Legion), since traditional Japanese watercolors often contain opaque media for use on tinted surfaces.  I used a lot of pigment AND a lot of water on the white paper, to see if they'll settle differently, since granulating paints have different weights of pigments that separate out visibly under certain conditions.

Both paint collections are lovely.  

The Holbein colors are vivid on white paper and also show well on black paper, with the darker colors showing differences in tone that aren't as distinct on white paper.  This gives me some ideas for using these paints on other tinted papers, as I've seen done with the Irodori line (which I purchased as watercolors unaware of their opacity; they have subsequently been re-released with much fanfare as gouache). Yes, this is an excuse for me to buy more tinted watercolor papers!  There is only one real yellow, which I would fuss over, but yellow is for mixing (greens), and these paints aren't intended to be mixed.  

The Harmonia colors are vastly more transparent, and the blendedd colors are pleasingly visible.  I only bought one of the two available sets: the Plus (yellow-orange box) set includes one yellow, four pinks (with reds and orange), four blues (including a blue green - I remain fascinated that there wasn't traditionally a distinction between the cool colors), and three neutrals.  If I put these to good use, that set might be a reward on my next trip.  

Both sets show granulation, some colors are much more obvious about it.  I drew some geometric shapes with a clear Grumbacher crayon to create paint-resistant lines, created broad washes over those, and then returned to the shapes once dry to apply more color selectively.  The washes were smoother than expected, pleasantly so.  I had to touch up some of the crayon lines with acrylic ink: the paints are heavily pigmented, and don't leave the wax entirely colorless.  

Using the paints this way was satisfying. I learned a lot about how the paints handle, and have some new ideas for how I'd like to use them.  

Pan watercolor assembly - first try

Back when I slept less in my youth, I experimented freely with watercolors, and even tried turning dry (chalk) pastels into less dusty paint after reading of Monet's efforts with that.  I had some success, but it was still a dusty process.  Having pigment bound in pan or tube watercolors is still much neater for me.

I enjoy colors and can mix new ones well (thank you, architecture school color theory classes!), but can only get so many colors.  Prepared, professional watercolors are often expensive, and only the most popular colors are economical to mass produce.  So I was unduly excited when I realized I could make obscure colors into paint by hand using gum arabic plus pigment from the gorgeous and famous shop called Pigment Tokyo.

I've watched some videos online, and there is a risk of making too dry a mixture: this can result in a failure for the paint to bind to the paper/medium when used. I've picked two colors to test for now: if the paint sticks, I'll continue on!  I took a spoon full of pigment and an equal amount of prepared gum arabic (diluted sap from an acacia tree), mixed them with tools (including the glass muller), and put them into pans to dry.  The 'matsuba rokusho' felt a little too wet, while the 'koikushi yaki rokusho' was very dry, and needed more gum solution to blend at all.  

I hope to learn some fun things from this experiment - and get some novel shades of paint, too!

Best wishes for 2026!

Wishing you (and all living beings) a safe, healthy, and peaceful 2026. 

Mural that responds to light (Electric Forest)

Behind the Midway art/concert venue is a mural that shifts between being a forest or a flock of birds, depending on the lights used to illuminate it.  The Midway credits the work to Haddad Drugan, and calls it "Electric Forest, Michigan St. c. 2023."  It is SO COOL!  (And it demonstrates a concept I wanted to use in a sci-fi story, where humans visited an alien place and couldn't read the extensive texts left in the buildings because they weren't using the appropriate wavelengths of light...  Yes, you knew what a geek I am.  You don't have to pretend.). I previously saw it by day (a different look!), but am thrilled I get to see these versions of it as well.

The last of my authentic Polaroid Peel-Apart Stash

As my post yesterday suggests, I recently found my mislaid Polaroid Automatic 100 Land Camera (made sometime from 1963-1966).  Until yesterday, I had four refrigerated packages of Polaroid Peel Apart Sepia (2) and Blue (2) filmpacks, all of which expired in 2009 (per the foil seal) or 2010 (per the Impossible Project's repackaging).  

One package of sepia was bulging (not a good sign).  The chemistry packs must have leaked - the media is all stuck together, and can't be pulled into position in my camera. One Blue pack made an appearance in a post yesterday: it delighted me.

This left one package of Sepia and another of Blue for my outing today.  Both seemed intact.  A test photo in my backyard showed the Sepia was viable, despite being ISO 1500 in a camera without any exposure settings anywhere near that.  (75, 150, 300, or 3000!?!?). Setting the camera to 3000 and turning the dial around the lens toward 'darken' worked fine.  

I decided to use these last exposures on favorite buildings, mostly new ones that weren't around when the film was manufactured. 

Some of the Sepia media had dried up, so the chemistry didn't make a complete image.  But five images came out well enough.  The Blue was much better: every frame developed completely.  I double-exposed one, despite coffee.  The chemistry left on the paper, which is exposed and creates the image on the printing paper as a sort of contact print, was WILD and interesting to look at.  (See samples below.)

The prints are unexpectedly stickier than similar ones were in the past, likely because the chemistry is more viscous.  I've wiped the caustic development paste off as well as I could, and wound up getting it on my hands and jeans.  Hopefully the most caustic components were largely consumed in developing the film.

I'm delighted to have refrigerated these packages so diligently over the last 15 years, and to have finally used them on places that feel special to me.  The Land Camera warmed up and worked well, much better than yesterday!  The shutter stability / sharpness both increased.  

Today wasn't this camera's final outing: I found a mislaid package of kickstarter (very expired) One Instant Packfilm to use, which I believe contains 3 exposures; I surprised myself a few years back by ordering a very expensive DIY kit from the same company, which arrived recently (8 exposures); and there is a chance I can obtain an Instax back for it, so I can use a popular film that is still manufactured!  I look forward to each of those adventures.

Excessive Complexity

Fire escape shadows on complex surfaces appear entirely too often in my portfolio, and I love them still.

TOO MANY LINES - this characteristic just attracts my eyes.  I'm overthinking how tough it would be to draw, but... but... still so appealing.

Also: slightly irregular reflections on grids!  What's not to like?

 

Ink at the Asian

The Park Dae-Sung show at the SF Asian Art Museum is fun to see.  As someone who often works in monochrome, it's great to see other contemporary art that does likewise. 

Mission Marquees

 

Polaroid Blue Film in my Automatic 100

 

Polaroid stopped manufacturing peel-apart film in 2008, so I obtained some in 2009-10 and… hoarded it. I’ve used some and loved it, but kept some in the fridge, since I wanted to save it for something special. But some of it dried out, and… I found the camera, warmed up the film, and was pleasantly surprised.

The camera is less precise with its shutter than I recall, but for a camera made in 1963-1966 that has never been serviced, it is doing okay!

Hopefully I’ll use up the rest of it this week. 

Analog Administration (Filmstrips) (20 December 2025)

I've been prolific this year, and all of the boxes and envelopes from my superb photo lab started to overflow my desk, so it was time to actually sort, label, and organize them.  In the process, I found about a dozen rolls I hadn't mentioned in my shooting log...  Which is all a reminder to actually DO SOMETHING with my work, so I can eventually get an assistant! ;) 

Spongesky (19 December 2025)

The clouds didn't finish baking by the time this photo was taken, clearly. 

Three Skies of the Eighteenth (18 December 2025)

Some evenings I risk missing my transit connections, because... the sky. 

Three Skies of the Fifteenth (15 December 2025)

People get excited about the sunset, but the sky AFTER sunset is the part that interests me most.  This one entranced me. 

City Hall Projections (14 December 2025)

Let's Glow may be over, but City Hall still has something special going on!  These projections are gorgeous, and I recommend them to anyone in the area! 

Neon of the North(ern edge of SF) (14 December 2025)

On another very chilly night, I went out to do some long, abstracts, but took photos of the source lights.  Neon is so... special.   

Bluest lights (13 December 2025)

The blue glow on the houses across the street lured me here.  It feels unreal, as if the colors are extending slightly beyond the range of human vision, and we can ALMOST see more... 

Retrophone (12 December 2025)

The FONT.  The SHAPE.  The tiles in cream, highlighter-yellow, warm brown, and black...  It's so 1970s in all the good ways. 

Southbound (12 December 2025)

The cold temperatures inspired some migrations to get going: this loose v-formation was one of a dozen that passed by within minutes of each other...  Birds are more organized for travel than many humans I know!
 

Northeast Night (9 December 2025)

December is often a harried month for me: year end deadlines, shipping deadlines, social obligations, and so on.  This year, we had a few weeks of temperatures in the 40s (Fahrenheit: say it was around 5.5C), which was... different.

I put on long underwear from my backpacking kit and went out to take some night photos on film anyway.  It was so WORTH IT!

Lines to the third

A and I went to see if the traditional miles of hanging lights have returned: sadly, they have not.  Yet, somehow, I was taking photos...