The Edmonton Photographic Historical Society gets items donated to us. This Collins Transparent Oil Colors for Coloring Photos kit was one of those items.
Inside the box there were Instructions printed on the inside of the lid. There were capsules of oil paints and materials to mix with them, a bag of cotton fibers and some sharp wooden sticks.
The capsules names varied from “Air Force Blue”–as opposed to straight blue–to Khaki Brown to help with other branches of the armed forces. There were clearly cryptic names like Transparent Medium (two capsules) through Sizing and Cleaning Medium capsules. Then there were clear colors like “Flesh”.
The Instructions are fascinating for their concise language.
Here are the instructions—
Instructions for Using Transparent Photographic Oil Colors
This transparent color set has been made for both the amateur and professional photographer
We advise the beginner or novice to carefully follow the instructions.
This set is made up of 16 colours. Two tubes of neutral or transparent medium, one each of cleaning and sizing medium. By mixing and thinning a large variety of shades and colors may be obtained.
In colouring photographs one must remember that the photograph itself should show through the colors in order to remain life like. These colours have been ground to the consistency whereby they may be applied full strength and still show the print through the colour after rubbing the color down. If at first try you find your work not as you wish simply clean off the print with a swab of cotton and medium and rub smooth and dry with a clean swab.
Colour the back ground of the photograph first and leave the main object of the print till the last, this leaves the subject in full relief and whereas background work may be blended there is very little blending in a subject. Apply the larger surface colours as a dress, or background, or sky, by a swab or tuft of cotton and smooth out with a dry tuft.
Detail work, such as the faces, hair, eyes, a tree stump, can be applied by using a skewer stick, you wind a small tuft of cotton around the pointed end and rub down by using a dry tuft.
Always remember that you must rub the colours down to tint and you will be agreeably surprised at the amount of colour that seems to be on the finished job whereas at first it does not seem to be strong enough.
The whites and natural photo colours can be cleaned out by using a sharp soft rubber or even the medium after the print is finished. Always clean off the border of your print before presenting it to anyone for inspection.
The hardest part of colouring a photo is the face, but if you practice as instructed it will soon become the easiest part of the work. First take a small piece of cotton and work in a little medium, then add a small amount of flesh, rubbing it down to the lightest tint. Then take a small amount of scarlet rub this out on another small piece of paper, take a skewer with a small amount of this rubbed out scarlet and first apply the lips using the amount left over to tint in the cheeks. Then add the hair and eyes with rubbed down colour. Clean out the whites of the eyes with a small amount of medium.
The colour takes at least 24 hours to dry and greater strength of colour can be added by going over with full strength colour. Do not attempt to colour glossy prints with any transparent oil colours as they will not stick to a glossy surface and manufacturers have produced dyes for glossy work, however, if you wish to try first wash off the gloss with a damp cloth and apply colour very lightly, in 24 hours a much stronger colour can be added and a fair job turned out.
Some photographic papers have a porous surface. These pores absorb the oil colours and give a blotchy effect. This may be overcome by applying a thin surface of sizing medium rubbed well into the print with a tuft of cotton. Remove excess medium with a clean tuft and allow 24 hours to dry.
We advise the beginner or novice to carefully follow the instructions.
This set is made up of 16 colours. Two tubes of neutral or transparent medium, one each of cleaning and sizing medium. By mixing and thinning a large variety of shades and colors may be obtained.
In colouring photographs one must remember that the photograph itself should show through the colors in order to remain life like. These colours have been ground to the consistency whereby they may be applied full strength and still show the print through the colour after rubbing the color down. If at first try you find your work not as you wish simply clean off the print with a swab of cotton and medium and rub smooth and dry with a clean swab.
Colour the back ground of the photograph first and leave the main object of the print till the last, this leaves the subject in full relief and whereas background work may be blended there is very little blending in a subject. Apply the larger surface colours as a dress, or background, or sky, by a swab or tuft of cotton and smooth out with a dry tuft.
Detail work, such as the faces, hair, eyes, a tree stump, can be applied by using a skewer stick, you wind a small tuft of cotton around the pointed end and rub down by using a dry tuft.
Always remember that you must rub the colours down to tint and you will be agreeably surprised at the amount of colour that seems to be on the finished job whereas at first it does not seem to be strong enough.
The whites and natural photo colours can be cleaned out by using a sharp soft rubber or even the medium after the print is finished. Always clean off the border of your print before presenting it to anyone for inspection.
The hardest part of colouring a photo is the face, but if you practice as instructed it will soon become the easiest part of the work. First take a small piece of cotton and work in a little medium, then add a small amount of flesh, rubbing it down to the lightest tint. Then take a small amount of scarlet rub this out on another small piece of paper, take a skewer with a small amount of this rubbed out scarlet and first apply the lips using the amount left over to tint in the cheeks. Then add the hair and eyes with rubbed down colour. Clean out the whites of the eyes with a small amount of medium.
The colour takes at least 24 hours to dry and greater strength of colour can be added by going over with full strength colour. Do not attempt to colour glossy prints with any transparent oil colours as they will not stick to a glossy surface and manufacturers have produced dyes for glossy work, however, if you wish to try first wash off the gloss with a damp cloth and apply colour very lightly, in 24 hours a much stronger colour can be added and a fair job turned out.
Some photographic papers have a porous surface. These pores absorb the oil colours and give a blotchy effect. This may be overcome by applying a thin surface of sizing medium rubbed well into the print with a tuft of cotton. Remove excess medium with a clean tuft and allow 24 hours to dry.
These colours are highly concentrated and if used properly
will tint 1,500 5 x 7 enlargements.
ELLICE FILM EXCHANGE* _________ WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
*Just for interest sake I searched on the internet to see if there was anything on the Ellice Film Exchange in Winnipeg, Manitoba. There was a film exchange building in Winnipeg that is fascinating just to read about. Evidentially films were both extremely popular and extremely explosive. So a special building was built that among other things had its loading dock on the second floor of the building! The building had support columns that would insure even in an explosion the building wouldn’t collapse. The top floors of this building were rented out to many small companies—which would explain this products home if the building is the same as the Winnipeg Film Exchange building.
I found it interesting “Color” can fluctuate between Canadian and American spelling in the instructions. We have an enlargement in our family that has been hand coloured and it is great to find out more about the actual process.
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