The vandyke brown print was invented by Herschel in 1842, getting its name from the print color's similarity to the deep brown pigment painter Van Dyck was known to use. The process is quite simple and is very similar to the first iron-silver process, the argentotype, which was also invented by Herschel and gave him credit for being the first to form an image with an iron sensitizer. "Both utilize the photosensitivity of iron salts as well as the ability of ferrous ions [iron(II)] to reduce silver ions to silver metal." The vandyke process is essentially his perfection of the argentotype.
The formula for the process is as follows:
Combine Solutions A and B and slowly add C while stirring. Pour the sensitizer in a brown bottle and let it age for a few days before using. Keep it stored in a dark place. I keep mine in a covered box. I have used sensitizer that had been sitting around for a year or so and it was fine. Care should be taken when mixing.
After evenly coating the paper and allowing it to dry, the negative and coated paper should be exposed in UV light (the sun), depending on cloud coverage, density of the negative, and number of coats of emulsion, this could take only a couple of minutes, or ten to fifteen.
After exposure, the image will darken greatly once it has gone through the fixing process, and will darken even more once it has dried.
"Prints are immersed in water and then checked to make sure that there are no bubbles on the surface. They are then transferred to the reducer and agitated until the desired density is achieved. Reduction seems to be most pronounced in the lighter areas so great care must be taken to avoid wiping out delicate highlight details. This reducer has a tendency to increase overall contrast. After reduction prints are treated in a hypo clearing agent for three minutes and then washed for thirty minutes."
The process is relatively low in cost, making it quite popular, and one can achieve different tones by adding Kodak Polytoner, gold selenium, sepia, berg Copper, or Berg Blue in order to achieve purples, pinks, and blues. Unfortunately the downside to vandyke prints is that they are prone to fading after prolonged exposure to UV light.
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I was first drawn to the Vandyke process when I became dissatisfied with the lack of variety and character of the baryta base of conventional gelatin-silver photographic papers. I wanted to make prints on some of the many beautiful and interesting papers that are available to printmakers and watercolorists and first worked with salted paper but with limited success and considerable frustration."
My experience:
Our solution for coating the paper was mixed beforehand so that it could sit for a few days as the formula calls for. after coating the 100% rag paper once and allowing it to dry, the coated paper was brought outside with the negatives.
I used one cyanotype negative and one salted paper negative. It was an overcast day, so we stayed outside for about fifteen minutes in order to allow the images to properly expose.
We then brought them inside to be fixed, starting with a rinse of water and citric acid for five minutes, running water for about two minutes, a 3% hypo mixture for one minute, and then another minute in another batch, concluding with a final wash in water for about 40 minutes.
The resulting prints were in fact darker once they had dried, and they definitely showed a wider tonal range than some of the other processes, such as cyanotype.
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