DEVELOPMENT STAGE: EXPERIMENTING WITH PHOTOS (DIGITAL)

After doing my first photo-shoot of the project, I started to experiment with mixed media as planned. I started off with digital collage and painting to work over the photos. I used inspiration from all the mixed media artists I had researched, but not as a 'response'. I produced around 30 digital experiments just by using Photoshop to create these digital multi-media photographs. I used Photoshop experiments prior to this shoot to influence my work because I had already experimented and decided what worked and what didn't, but I still also experimented with new types of layering.

I used a variety of techniques, such as paint strokes using the paint tool brush on Photoshop, playing with the opacity of the brush and the brush type to create brush strokes that look like physical paint. I had also previously played around with this when I did my first Photoshop experiments on the images of the gallery visit I went on. I used the rectangle tool for some images to create a solid colour over the photo and then play with the opacity and the layer masking. 

Some issues I came across with using the paint tool was that the edits over the photos began to look like the main image rather than an image that had been worked upon with multi-media, I solved this by layering the images with paint strokes and other techniques such as using shapes and changing their opacity so that they didn't look too dark and out of place, although looking back I think that things looking out of place on the image might reinforce the mixed media aesthetic and could work well.

The next technique I played with was using the past experiments with the photocopier/scanner with the pins and woodchips. I placed the image over my photograph and played around with the opacity and layer effects. I really like one of the effects I created with the scanned image of  the pins which I made black and white, because it blended with the background and I feel the placement of the picture was successful in the way that it sits with my photograph. I also like the masking tape image coming through because it gives the photo a scrap-book like feel. 

I also did this with scans of some polka dot cellophane that I bought to use in the photo-shoot and then layered the scan over the top of the image that I had already used the rectangle and overlay effects over.  I then placed the scans of the cellophane carefully over the photo and experimented with the effects, I eventually settled with an effect that really brought out the texture of the cellophane in the original photograph. What I would do differently in the future is maybe be a bit more adventerous and not be afraid to make an image look 'ugly' when just experimenting. I also would take more screenshots to show my development, which is luckily what I did when doing physical mixed media pieces after learning from my mistakes with digital.