Pepper / Paprika, common (Capsicum annuum varietals) anthotype by Frank Gorga

“Summer Vine” by Frank Gorga
Country: USA
Parts used: Powder from the grocery store
Application: Dipping (but see observations)
Exposure time: 45-60 minutes
Months, season and year: July, summer, 2022
Substrate: Strathmore Series 400 Drawing paper (but see observations)
Contrast of final print: *** (High)

Amount: 10 g /100 mL
Extracted using: Soaking, allowing insoluble material to settle out and decanting
Thinner: mineral spirits (but see observations)
Layers: 1 (but see observation)
Used to create image: fresh plant material (leaves and stem)

Challenges or observations:

1) Dipped paper works well, but adding a second coat with a brush after the first is dry is probably worthwhile.
2) iso-propanol (rubbing alcohol) can be used in place of mineral spirits but in this case double coating is
probably necessary.
3) This process does not seem to be picky about paper. I have tried a number of different papers from expensive
rag watercolor and printmaking papers to inexpensive drawing papers. All seem to work. My ‘go to’ papers are
Strathmore 400 Series drawing paper and Strathmore Vision drawing paper.
4) This process is *VERY* fast compared to most other anthotypes. Exposures are roughly 1 hour in bright sun.
5) Because of the speed of exposures it is worth considering the following:
a) I think that this process is well suited for teaching purposes, especially if one uses iso-propanol
as the solvent. (I doubt that I would use mineral spirits with children, but it might be OK with adults
in the right setting.) One should be able to go from making an extract to a finshed print in less than
one day.
b) Coated paper needs to be dried in a dark (because of the speed) and well ventilated (because of the
mineral spirits) place.
c) Paprika anthotypes are likely quite impermanent. However, I have found that spraying finished prints
with an acrylic fixative is very effective at stabilizing the prints.

A pdf file with the result of this
experiment and examples of paprika anthotypes is available at
http://gorga.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Paprika-Anthotypes.pdf