altering photographs is a loose and unpredictable process
requiring few complicated or special supplies. for this reason
i find it freeing and a good warm up exercise
before i begin painting or drawing.
i use two small plastic containers that will hold 4 x 6 photo.
one holds water and the other a mixture of water and bleach.
other supplies are photos of course, you can use up those photos
that you can't throw away but pile up and never seem to have a place,
steel wool, an awl or nail or pen without ink, anything to scratch into
the surface once it has been softened by water, stencils, lace, doily,
styrofoam container or any other type of texture you can think of.
lots of rags, newspaper and paper towels to sop up the mess.
maybe gloves too.
the first step is to dip the photo into water. you can dip a portion of the
photo or the whole thing. wait a few seconds for the emulsion to soften.
then use one of the tools, for example the steel wool
and start scraping. there are no rules for how to proceed.
work on the photo until you feel finished. you can always
go back in and do more later. set it aside to dry.
another process is to dip a portion of the photo or the whole
photo into the water/bleach mixture. you need to experiment
with the amount of time to let it sit in the bleach. try a few
seconds first.
from here you can experiment more with
scratching and altering the photo or you can let it change colors on
its own. oil pastels, watercolor, acrylic can also be used,
you can dip it immediately into the water bath to stop the bleaching process,
blot the liquid or let the colors drip into each other. you will do well to
change the water mixture frequently. the bleach
mixture will hold out through many photos.
once the photo has dried, you can use it as a part of collage
or even it frame it.
wishing you a lovely weekend. i will be participating
in a journaling workshop with orly avineri and am
looking forward to a reunion with my journaling buddies.
posting with the artists at paint party friday.
Irene this is a wonderful technique. I love how you used scratch tools to create depth. Well done. I would love to spend a day with you just creating art.
ReplyDeleteHave the best weekend
Nicole/Beadwright
I would love to create art with you one day as well, Nicole. We might have to make it happen! Have a lovely weekend.
DeleteWow, what a great process. I have tons of pictures that's for sure. Thanks for the tutorial.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see what you do with those photos. It is really a fun process. I have already sold some of the pieces that I played with. In the future I will post what I did with the photos to create a finished piece.
Deleteoooh this sounds like a fun (all day) and fascinating process of manipulation Irene! Love the last one. Do you use a specific type of printed photo-polaroid, inkjet, laser, etc.?
ReplyDeleteIt is fun! I like the fact that there is no pressure, he outcome is a surprise, and that you can use up those photos that are just sitting around with no place to be. I used photos from my iPhoto library that I printed at Costco for pennies but you can use whatever photo prints that you have. It works best with actual photos (remember those) as opposed to copies of photos.
DeleteWhat a fascinating technique, Irene! Thanks for all the good ideas. Love your examples.
ReplyDeleteThese are really beautiful, and a lovely technique too. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like BIG fun, and I have lots of photos to play with, so must give it a try! Valerie
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a lot of fun, I always love techniques where you can't predict the outcome. Thanks for sharing! And you're going on a workshop with Orly!? Lucky you! I did a workshop with her in January and I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI love this process and these pieces so much...they are gorgeous Irene!!
ReplyDeleteHugs Giggles
Loving the way you did these Irene, fab work. Happy PPF, Annette x
ReplyDelete