I’ve had lots of questions, both from artists and people who don’t consider themselves artists, about my methods, so I’ll try to explain a bit here. Also, some of the actual posts have a bit about specific techniques. You can find those posts listed in Art Methods, under the Category menu on the right side.
THE MAJORITY OF MY ARTWORK ON THIS SITE IS DIGITAL, starting from my own photographs, or sometimes it’s a combination of digital and non-digital paint or pencil etc . I used to paint mainly acrylics, so there’s also a few acrylics, pencil sketches, or wax crayon plus watercolour etc.
MOST BASICALLY : I see something which appeals to me, I take a photo of it, or perhaps I already have a photo. Then I just keep playing with it in my old Photoshop Elements 12 until I am happy with what arises!
There are many somewhat different versions of this. Here are some:
GENERAL METHODS. (Specific examples coming further on)
1. One of my favorite methods: When I’m out for a walk, I see patterns which I like, in things such as concrete (walls, pavings etc), tree bark, wet roads, cut wood, flaking lamp-posts etc, patterns which have formed from the natural behaviour of the elements and/or light, or patterns inherent in the structure of the object itself. At home, I see patterns in pea soup, on old saucepans, dirty plates, dishwater, counter-spills, or whatever! I then foto-fiddle with these, turning them into abstracts .
2. Another method is to use two or more photos, one on top of another, and play with the degree and type of layering. When I like the result, I merge them and then further change or add details .
Photoshop has many “filters” which you can use to make different effects on photos but I rarely use most of these, and I don’t use other commercial filters because I think they tend to give a very “same-all-over” look. I make my own “filters”, using the textures of natural objects such as sand, leaves, petals, wood, water, even skin, or objects such as walls, fabric, stucco, kitchenware, carpets etc.
3. Another method is to photograph parts of “unsatisfactory” old paintings or perhaps splotches of paint, spills or papers on which I have tested colours, or even messes on the kitchen counter, and then I work on them to change the colours or shapes etc.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES. THERE ARE OTHER EXAMPLES IN VARIOUS POSTS:
- SEEING PATTERNS IN NATURAL OR MAN-MADE OBJECTS OR PROCESSES
Patterns in concrete, paving, roads or sidewalks are a great source of pattern for me.
Two examples of this are Concrete Abstract and Soundings. I have taken patterns seen in concrete, coloured them and also added, emphasized and changed parts. I can no longer find the original grey concrete photos of these two, but there is a similar one below.
Here is a photo of a concrete wall somewhat similar to the photos which I used as starters for Soundings and Concrete Abstract
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Blue Barky Abstract was made from a photo of grey-brown tree bark. I up-saturated it and re-coloured parts, but otherwise altered very little, since I liked it the way it was.
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Dregs of kefir in a glass, an example of my favorite Branching Pattern in Nature, turned upside down and coloured, with some added details, became In the Forests of Kefiristan !
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2. BEING INSPIRED BY A PHOTO TO CREATE A PIECE WHICH IS IN SOME WAY RELATED. Made by using all or parts of the photo (Plus a lot of extra “painting” and rearranging work!)
Remembrance of Places Which No Longer Exist arose out of a photo of peeling paint on a garage door.
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4. TAKING ALL OR PART OF A PHOTO AND CREATING SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT by using distortions, rearrangements, cutting-and-pasting etc in Photoshop plus extra drawing work.
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This abstract was made by taking the photo below, turning it, twisting it, intensifying the colours, playing around with it to get the proportions I wanted, plus a lot of other texture work. What is the photo below? Well, actually, it’s my kitchen sink, with some dishes and cutlery soaking under some soapy water. You can see two white-handled knives, a plastic bowl, some plates and so on. It’s yellowish probably because of the lighting in the evening. So you can see my artwork comes, not “from everything but the kitchen sink”, but rather including the kitchen sink!
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To see how Marine Abstract came about, look at the illustration below. The picture above looks a bit like stained glass, but it is something very different! I have a black “stone” counter in my kitchen, which is a big pain to try to keep clean-looking, BUT I discovered that it is a wonderful source for foto-fiddling ! I also have a large black plate, and you could use one to experiment. I had a clear plastic container, something like a cottage cheese container, and when it was partly filled with water, the rim etc showed up well against the black counter.
The first picture below shows a plastic container similar to the one I used, to show you what I started with. I then cut-and-pasted, duplicated and moved different parts of the photo’s cut curves to make the other mandala-like pictures at the bottom, and Marine Abstract. You can see the beginning of the boat’s prow in the top right. Other cuts made the “waves”. The bottom row of mandalas, made in the same way, are not on this site. Yet.
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5. LOOKING AT SOMETHING WHICH HAS INTERESTING LINES OR COLOURS AND WONDERING HOW IT MIGHT BE DIFFERENT. Using colour or light changes in Photoshop.
This is a photo of a wall-hanging which I made from ends of lining materials from a fabric store. (The ends of dark-coloured fabrics as they come off the roller often lack full dye, leaving interesting patterns. The actual material would have appeared navy-blue or black!)
For those not used to what I call foto-fiddling, the second photo shows four different examples of manipulating colours in Photoshop. I chose one which I liked and worked on it further, cutting and pasting and drawing.
The third photo shows the result : Abstract. Red. There are more details on that post .
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6. THE MOST TIME-CONSUMING METHOD: I HAVE A PHOTO AND I KNOW IN ADVANCE HOW I WANT TO CHANGE IT. I SIMPLY WORK ON IT, BIT BY BIT by hand, so to speak, that is with a digital pen, brush and eraser, until I achieve the effect that I want. In this case I wanted to emphasize the patterns of the leaves and the bird’s feathers.
Two examples of this are Tree at the Edge of the Woods and Place in the Forest.
2The Tangled Garden Series is another example of this method. Here is one:Robin. There is more info on the Tangled Garden Series page.
Tangled Garden : Robin
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I hope these examples will be inspiring to those who have yet not used any photo-editing tools. If you don’t want to buy Photoshop, which now works by monthly subscription, there are many simpler apps, some free, which you can download. Prisma has some free ones. I have never used Prisma but I have seen some interesting work which used their free app.
There is also GIMP, a free photo-editing software similar to Photoshop, but I found it hard to use, with not very good instructions. However, I tried it years ago; it may be better now. Many photo sites and also the cameras themselves now have some basic photo-altering possibilities.