Have you ever seen the beauties in Sarah Van Der Linden (@mirglis) cyanotype? If not…. please head on over here to be mesmerized! I am a huge fan of Sarah’s cyanotype work, the dark blue shades in which appear white shapes seem so mysterious and very beautiful.

I am trying something new here, all text in italic is the French version of this post!

Avez-vous déjà admiré les super créations de Sarah Van Der Linden (@mirglis) avec les cyanotypes sur instagram? Si ce n’est pas le cas, je vous invite à aller y jeter un coup d’oeil tout de suite! Je suis trop fan du travail de Sarah. Mais les cyanotypes, avec leur couleur de prusse bien vive et les formes blanches qui se détachent nettement, il y a un quelque chose de mystérieux, magique et tellement joli…

what are cyanotypes?

Very simply put, cyanotypes are made by exposing paper on which a photosensitive solution has been applied. You add elements on top of your paper and you squish it with a glass. After a little while in the sun, and you are left with a white “photography” of whatever you left on the paper. It is the oldest form of photography. You can read all about cyanotypes on Wikipedia. Very detailed and full of artists you might want to check out for their use of the process.

Qu’est-ce qu’est un cyanotype? Très simplement, c’est une procédé par lequel on applique une solution sensible au soleil sur un papier. On dépose ensuite des éléments sur le papier et on ajouter une vitre par dessus, et hop, au soleil! Après coup, il nous reste une jolie “photographie” des éléments déposés. Ssi vous voulez en savoir plus, je vous recommande le super billet de blog de Sarah à propos de ce procédé et de son historique.

why ready-to-go cyanotype kits?

Sarah offers ready-to-go cyanotype kits. I made her promise to sell me one of the first kits so I could test making cyanotypes. I was so excited to try, but I was scared to order the solution during the winter months and they would freeze. So the premade cyanotype kits made a lot of sense for me. And also, not too much of an investment if I ended up not liking the process!

Sarah offre des kits tout-prêt de cyanotypes. Je lui avais fait promettre de me vendre un de ses premiers kits pour essayer les cyanotypes! J’avais très envie d’essayer les kits, mais j’avais peur de commandé les liquides en hiver et qu’ils gèlent dans ma boite aux lettres. Et aussi, je n’avais pas envie de me retrouver avec de grosses bouteilles si je n’aimais pas le processus autant!

how do cyanotypes work?

Making cyanotypes is in fact very fun and quite simple…. which leaves a lot of place for creativity! You pull out the prepared sheets from their protective package. You add plants or flowers, dried or fresh, on the sheets. And the add a glass on top. And you bring everything outside. On a warm Spring day, it is fun to stay near the developing cyanotypes!

Faire les cyanotypes, ce n’est pas trop compliqué. Ça laisse en fait beaucoup de place pour la créativité! Après avoir sorti les feuilles de leur emballage protecteur, il faut poser des choses dessus pour faire des empreintes. Des feuilles, des fleurs, des plantes, sèches ou fraiches. Ensuite, on apporte le tout dehors, en essayant de ne pas tout faire tomber et on attend. C’est vraiment très chouette à faire par une belle journée de printemps!

After a while, you need to take them in, removing the items you place and rince the prints. This was stressful for me! I kept worrying that they were not rinsed enough. After this, you have to let them dry and the color develops over time (I kept worrying too that I messed something up because the color was so pale blue!).

Après un moment, on rentre le tout et on enlève les trucs qu’on avait posé pour faire des empreintes. Et puis on rince. Je n’arrêtais pas de m’inquiéter de ne pas avoir assez rincé! Finalement, il faut laisser sécher. Le bleu se développe avec le temps. J’avais peur d’avoir raté le truc parce les cyanotypes étaient tous bleu pâle!

my results

Oh my gosh we had so much fun! My daughter had half of the sheets, and I had the other half. We had collected way more stuff to use than the space we had to use them…. We will definitely make more cyanotypes in the future! See my instagram post for a mini video of all the cyanotypes together.

Oh lala que je me suis amusée! Ma fille a la moitié des feuilles pour créer des cyanotypes, et moi, l’autre moitié. Nous avions ramassé vraiment beaucoup trop de choses pour le nombres de feuilles de nous avions! Nous allons définitivement en refaire! Allez voir mon post instagram pour voir une animation de tous mes cyanotypes.

But what amazed me the most was the texture you can get from the plants. I had not thought of that and this will guide my further experiments. The ginko leave was just amazing. And the dried hortensia petals as well. You can see the texture in the petals. I cannot wait to remake some with “leaf lace” and other things I had thought too delicate to play with.

Ce qui m’a surpris le plus dans cette expérience : les textures des feuilles et fleurs. La feuille séchée de ginko par exemple. Tout simplement flabbergastant. Pareil pour les pétales d’hortensias. Je vais résessayer avec d’autres choses que je croyais trop délicates pour faire des cyanotypes…. dès que j’aurai reçu ma commande!

where to buy the kits?

Sarah sold a few premade kits this winter. She might sell more in the future. I feel like is a wonderful idea! Sarah has an Etsy shop, which is on pause right now. You can also find Sarah on instagram where you can perhaps mention nicely your interest for a kit!

Sarah a une boutique Etsy, par contre la boutique est en pause pour l’instant. Vous pouvez également trouver Sarah sur instagram où vous pourrez peut-être gentiment lui signifier votre intérêt pour les kits!

where to buy cyanotype supplies?

In Canada, I found Opus Art Supplies who carry Jacquard cyanotype kits. I’m so excited and just placed an order! I prefer to encourage the “local” stores (though this one is all the way on the other side of Canada!).

Au Canada, j’ai trouvé le magasin Opus Art Supplies qui tient en stock les produits pour faire des cyanotypes. Je suis tellement contente que je viens de placer une commande! Je préfère encourager les commerces “locaux”, même si locaux ici ça veut dire à l’autre bout du pays!

And just for the sake of verifying my info, I now found my usual local art store, DeSerres, now carries it too…. ah well! I’ll know for next time!

Et juste en écrivant ces lignes, afin de vérifier mes infos, je vois que mon magasin habituel, DeSerres, a un nouveau produit…. les solutions pour cyanotypes! Et bien! Je le saurai pour la prochaine fois!

A few of these posts will be released as a less-than-perfect series (for me anyhow). I tend to over edit things, but I feel those posts might be useful to a bunch of people stuck at home… so I’ll make them more perfect later (maybe!).

It all started at Ikea, where we picked up a watercolor set and some gouache. They are very affordable so I thought that it would be good for “wasting”. I did not know all of the adventure that would unfold after these simple suppliest I was mesmerized by the colors mixing in the water. That’s when I started the whole watercolor adventure.

online tutorials

We have looked at many online tutorials together. We usually sit together in front of the computer and try them together, each on our own paper. If my daughter needs help, I pause, help her and we continue.

As you probably know if you’ve see Skillshare mentioned a lot everywhere, it is a paying subscription service. Some classes are sometimes free, it’s worth to take a look. Also, if you ever sign up with my link (or just by typing skillshare.com in google) you will find a 2 month try out period. The links in this article contains this offer for you, and a small commission for me at no cost to you if you sign up through there.

Here are a few of the classes and tutorials we loved to the most.

• Classes by Em Winn on Skillshare. Geared towards a young audience, they are fun to make as an adult as well. We each make our own version and often exchange them after the class. This one Draw and paint a watercolor hummingbird in a wildflower garden was a blast!
• Arthub for Kids on Youtube. This channel is a dad who draws different things with one of his kids. You can then see the difference between the adult’s drawing and the kids drawing, and they do put a lot of emphasis on “it’s ok, you are learning”. We made a lot of these: shopkins, ponies, halloween monsters, …
• The prompts from the Paint Yourself Happy Challenge initiated by Simone from Studio Artisjok. These were a joy to make together. Collages especially. The kid has no fear of tearing through stuff!
• Kolbie Blume (@thiswritingdesk on instagram) made a very fun Watercolor galaxies class for kids that you can make either with markers or watercolors. Both methods were very fun!
• We also had a blast making the backgrounds in Fun and easy watercolor backgrounds from Ayesha Ansari on Skillshare. Even if the class isn’t tailored to children, it was simple enough to follow for both of us.

the materials

At the beginning, we were both using the same materials…. the Ikea stuff. But then, I started buying some “good stuff”. And my daughter was 3 at the time…. so she didn’t get to try my new stuff.

Then, I found the better stuff and what a difference. So she got my “good stuff” (a pebeo 12 color set that I never liked much). But she soon wanted to try my better stuff.

But I kind of cringed everytime she mixed the colors in the half pans of my favorite artisanal makers… But then I saw this video from Josie Lewis where she cleans a palette under the tap and kind of let go of my concerns over my paint.

Around Christmas time, we went to buy her a small palette and some half pans. She also got to choose a few van Gogh colors. And she chose colors for her first palette for herself. I shared it on instagram and we had an amazing conversation over there about sharing our supplies with our kids!

Brushes and paper though are another story! I’m starting to educate her as to how to use brushes. And slowly but surely she is learning how to softly load a brush and not kill it it the process. She also yelled at my mom who let a craft brush stand in water, so she is on the right track!

what I learned by making art with my kid

I have this piece in my office cubicle that I love so much. Because for one it is beautiful. But also, she was so concentrated when she made it… one color at a time, with intention. And then at one point, she exclaimed “It’s finished”. It was a little magical.

There is this quote I keep seeing from Picasso (I’d love to know if it is true) :

It took me four years to paint like Rapahael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

Pablo Picasso

All of the advice we hear about “how to paint” or “how to find your style” often center around the following:

• make a lot of art, bad or good, not important, but a lot will be bad
• enjoy the process
• play
• do it for the process
• do not think of the end result
• do what you like
• know the rules to break them
• experimenting, to see what might happen if…

If you ever painted with a child, you’ll see that these are all of the things they do!

So play with paint with your little ones. Even if you feel you are “wasting” some materials. You should be doing that yourself anyways! And believe me. I know how hard it is to feel you are wasting stuff. But instead, think of it as practice. And teach them a thing or too about using the stuff properly, but not to much about “how to make art”.

Watch them, play along them. And I’m sure you will learn a thing of two. At the very least, you guys will have fun!

and now…

My kid is now making me painting classes, helping me choosing colors to add to painting, when she isn’t directing the whole thing. Here are a few examples.

word of the end

Go paint with your kids! They are so open to listening, and so creative. You will learn a lot from them, I am so sure of it!