I am constantly looking for ways to present my art. Lately I am keen on hand-coloring a few of my photos. It started innocently enough with me coloring a few works earlier in the year. Then I decided to hand-color one of my earlier images.

I shot this photo as an HDR Image (High Dynamic Range – taking three photos of the same scene but with various aperture/shutter speeds). Used Photoshop to convert the image to black and white.

For the output, I used Museo Portfolio Rag – an archival digital fine art inkjet paper and printed the image on an Epson Printer. Drying time was immediate but I started hand-coloring a week later.

Because the paper was a smooth cotton matte I was able to lay down the colors with ease. Using Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils, I layered and blended colors with great consistency, using vibrant colors to create an animated scene.

The entire coloring process took me about 6 months to complete.