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.
