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| Money Tree. Computer Experiment using cut out images in Photoshop. © by Ruth Zachary |
On March 30, I promised to
show a new technique in Photoshop. The new technique involved putting different
layers together and then changing the modes of the top layers. Before, I had used
some abstract layers and some realistic layers, but these experiments never
worked well. It did work well when I used a cut out bicycle and a polka-dot pig
with an abstract background, and changed the modes to find an example that
integrated well. See the blog posted April 4th and 5th on this
site.
With the new method, some
of the layers were cut out. In the above example, the image of the girl in the
tree was cut out. The coins, also were cut out. These were grouped with two
other abstract painterly textured layers, each where the imagery filled the
entire format. The format size was 7.5 x 10 inches, to keep the file at a
smaller size so working more speedily was possible. The actual images were a
little larger than the format boundaries, so layers could be shifted to a
better position.
With this method, the
artist is not limited to photographic images, or to computer generated
abstractions. Layers can be created by hand methods, scanned into the computer,
and then cut out and modes can be applied to the experiments. Separate
realistic cut outs, from drawings, paintings, or other media, can be combined with
hand created abstract shapes, to integrate elements from both.
I have had trouble
combining abstraction and realistic images in the same picture plane, something
I have mentioned before. Perhaps it is similar to the stage of development
children enter, when they become preoccupied with making their drawings and
paintings ever more realistic. Before this stage, most children have a natural
sense of space, balance, color and composition, and they don’t require such
realism of their creations. I suspect it is related to left brained/ right brained
functioning dominating the process.
If I create an
abstraction, I am not impaired by the same constricting standards of realism.
But at some stage, for what ever reason, I found it hard to make an
impressionistic version of a recognizable subject, where once it had seemed
like second nature.
The writing groups I have
taken part in often have a segment of artistic people as well. In my Second
Saturday Writers Group, (On Facebook) Susan Buller, brought several Collages
she had done for an art show last fall. They were wonderful! I had not been
able to attend her show, and I felt so grateful that I got to see them.
She had also displayed her
poems with the Collages. She said she got the idea from a show I had at the UU
Church for Chalice Arts where I had displayed poems with art.
Then Ken Mowery, another
man in our writer’s group asked me if I might do a short demonstration of
Collage. He is interested in art as therapy, and collage can be relatively easy
for untrained people. I realized I could
do this, as I had done a Collage and Experimental Painting demonstration
several years prior, for the Greeley Art Association, and still had many of the
examples I collected then.
Collage - Next time
That made me think of also
using my blogs as a showcase for Collage, which I may do for several weeks in
the future. I expect I will also work with experimental painting techniques. I
will put my abstract experiments on one blog and the more realistic images on
this Montage blog.
Recently I have been
exploring Computer Art techniques… trying to discover ways to create with the
computer to make art. I have not forsaken hand made art. In fact, integrating
hand made methods and traditional media using the computer has been my goal. Collage is another step for integrating both realistic and abstract imagery.
To see other experiments
with more abstract imagery including the coins, visit my blog, Mixed MediaAbstract Art, posted on May 17.
Images and Writing on this site are the Copyright © of Ruth Zachary.
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