1. What is a sunprint? 2. How do you make one? 3. How do you care for and display a sunprint? Written by a sunprint artist.

1. What is a sunprint?

A sunprint is an original, one of a kind contact photography print. Sunprinting was a precursor technology to silver process photography.  In the 1800s, artist-inventors experimented with many different photography processes before silver process, which creates black and white photos, became the standard.  Other precursors include sepia tone and tintype photography. 

Sunprinting gave rise to the word "blueprint" when it was used to copy architectural drawings.  In the 1800s, all sunprinting paint was blue.  Blue still yields the most detailed images, which is why I often use blue (or green or purple) bases when making a still life with delicate plants such as Queen Anne's Lace.  Botanical prints were one of the main uses of sunprinting in the 1800s, used by botanists exploring the West to record their finds for posterity; many of these botanical sunprints are now in the collection of the Smithsonian.  Sunprinting fell out of practical use when replaced as a photography process by silver based photography, and replaced as a copying process by mimeography and xerography.  But today it is enjoying a revival as an art form.

2. How do you make a sunprint?

 A sunprint can be called a "monoprint" because it is literally a one-print, but the paint is applied directly to the paper or fabric rather than being applied to a printing plate and then printed.  With a sunprint on fabric, there is a glass printing plate involved, but it is underneath the fabric, creating a smooth, flat surface.  A fabric sunprint can be made on a regular table, but any texture or surface imperfections in the table will "print" onto the sunprint, so a glass plate eliminates unwanted textures.

To make a sunprint of a flower, the flower must be pressed and dried so that it is as flat as possible, so that as much of the shape of the flower as possible contacts the paper or fabric.  A wash of water based sunprinting paint is then applied to the paper or fabric with a paint brush or paint roller.  Then the flower is applied to the wet medium and left in the sun to print.  The amount of time it takes to print depends on the strength of the sunlight.  Then the plant matter is removed from the sunprint.

Sunprinting has ties to many other art forms. When I make a sunprint, I usually paint more than one layer, with the final layer the actual sunprint.  I use a wet-on-dry technique for the layers.  Thus, although sunprinting is a photographic process, it is also similar to watercolor painting. Sometimes I also print the underpainting, which yields visible underpainted images because sunprint paint is transparent. Sometimes I use pearlescent or metallic paints in the under layers, depending on the effect I want. In addition to plant materials, I also use paper cutouts in my sunprints, and for this reason, many people find that sunprints resemble airbrush paintings.  The layering effects bring many people to see a similarity with batik.  When I use a paper cutout in a sunprint, it is cut from a line drawing that I make with a pen.  Thus, drawing skill can also be a part of sunprinting.

This is the underlayer of Las Vegas Skyline With Fireworks.

This is the second layer, before removal of the paper cutout.

The finished sunprint Las Vegas Skyline With Fireworks.  The skyline was sunprinted from a paper cutout.  The fireworks I added with a paintbrush.

Las Vegas Skyline.  This is the first sunprint I made with the Las Vegas Skyline paper cutout.  LV Skyline with Fireworks is the second.  As you can see, they are very different, and one could not be mistaken for the other! The paper cutout itself has also been slightly modified in the Fireworks sunprint. Whenever I made a second sunprint from the same cutout, I always try to make it look very different from the first one, whether by using a different color scheme, or, as in this case, adding a substantial new element.

3.  How do you care for and display a sunprint?

Just like other kinds of  photographs, once a sunprint is developed it is no longer light sensitive and can be displayed under full lighting.  A sunprint on fabric can be washed, by hand, in plain water, by itself.  Fabric sunprints can even be ironed.  A press cloth is recommended to avoid transfering "iron stuff".

A sunprint on either paper or fabric can be matted and framed. A fabric sunprint can be stretched on stretchers and displayed unframed, and treated as a painted canvas.  A sunprint on fabric can even be quilted and hung from a quilt sleeve.  At least one person I know of uses a fabric sunprint I made as an altar cloth.

To store a sunprint when it is not being displayed, or to package a sunprint for moving, a small sunprint or a sunprint on paper should be stored flat, in an acid free archival storage box. A large fabric sunprint can be rolled up.  Encase a rolled up fabric sunprint in acid free tissue paper, a clean, bleach-free cotton sheet, or any archival storage material designed for fiber art.

A matted a framed sunprint called Viking Ship with Red Sails.

Three still life sunprints on stretchers, from left: Umbellifers, Dandelion & Dill, Luscious Colors.

A sunprint of folk dancers sewn into a quilt called Folk Dance.