I was approached by the Myland Paints and Varnishes to re-colour one of their old photos of the newly set up shop in Lambeth from 1884.
“John Mylands paints story began in 1884 when ‘Honest’ John Myland set up his modest shop in the heart of Lambeth. Unlike some other paintmakers of the day, John was absolutely in thrall to the art of the colourman, insisting on only the very best materials that would allow him to create colours that were lustrous and flawless, with guaranteed quality.” – Mylands.co.uk
Like any image from this era, it had mottled fading. Areas of uneven fading in spots. Its rather like getting a sponge and dabbing on a freshly painted surface and lifting off the paint. Tricky to fix unless you are a dab hand at dodge and burn with a soft low opacity brush!
Mylands Paints and Varnishes 1884
The shop still in the family business today. Mr Myland wanted the image for launch they were doing of a new line of products. The only problem was the image had to be wall to ceiling and hand coloured!
Whilst the restoration went well the colouring was lengthy but had to be subtle. A quick look at the image doesn’t seem like much colour is in the image. But due to the colour charts and bottle labels and shelves with numerous items, there were dozens and dozens of them. There are many references to colouring on my blog on how to do this.
Mylands Paints and Varnish 1884 hand coloured image detail
It took many revisions to get the colouring correct. My Mylands paints and labels had to be correct according to his paint colours and branding colours. I worked with him very closely to get the image to a quality that would enable him to produce a massive enlargement for his product launch.
If you have any special projects that require working closely together or have very specific requirements you may like to view our “special projects” section of our site.
