"Pretty Ordinary" - A Series of Mixed Media work

These are the works I recently displayed at Provisorium in Munich. They also tie in with Creative Every Day's March theme of "Mixed Media".

I have called this series "Pretty Ordinary" and it is based around the idea I had of photographing ordinary things on the street - peeling paint, rust, cracks in the pavement, things that you wouldn't normally even notice -  seeing what the shapes and lines inspire in my imagination and then drawing and/or painting directly on the printed photographic images to bring those ideas to life. In other words, to make something pretty from something very ordinary.

It's a new way of working for me, quite experimental and fun. Sometimes an idea works well, other times less well (lots ended up in the bin!), but that's all part of the process.

What's interesting is how each of us might see something different in these patterns. What we see is shaped by our own experiences and interests. Anyone can try this technique. Just print your photo on matt photo paper, pull out any art materials you have to hand and let your imagination take over!

Here are the "before" and "after" images (sometimes an image is rotated before being illustrated on):

"Concrete Jungle" (Pencil, charcoal and paper blender on photographic image of rust drips on concrete wall)

"Home Sweet Home" (pen, watercolour pencil and gouache on photographic image of cracks in pavement) 

"Blown away at the Fair" (gouache on photographic image of rust on tip)

SOLD

"Just Bee" (pen and gouache on photographic image of a shattered glass wall)

"Fish School" (pen on photographic image of a shattered glass wall)

"Bluebell Woods" (gouache on photographic image of moss on a concrete wall)

SOLD

 

Each piece is a one-off original on photo rag archival paper, size 20x30cm. If you are interesting in purchasing one of the available works, just drop me a line at liaedwardsphotography@gmail.com for more details.

"Say Hello" (or "Stuff in my Head") - Assignment 1, OCA Illustration Course

The brief for the first assignment of my course in Illustration with the OCA was to prepare a greetings card to introduce myself to my tutor. The card should say something about me, my interests, my aspirations and the materials I am happy working with.

I decided to combine photography and drawing for this exercise, as that's really what I would like to explore most on this course.  Here's the final piece (fig.1).

Fig. 1

Process

This was the process for producing this piece.

1. Concept. I decided my concept would be a portrait of me and what is in my head. So I brainstormed "what is in my head" (fig. 2). This led to themes around creativity, drawing, photography, playing music, things that inspire me, like trees and plants, fashion photography, art galleries, my aspirations around combining my photography and illustrations in textile design. I liked the idea of a photographic portrait of me, with hand-drawn illustrations of all these things spilling out of my head/in my thoughts.

Fig. 2

2. Photography. I set up the camera and directed my husband to take some portraits of me on a bright day outside. The idea was to have me looking lost in my thoughts.  In Photoshop, I made my chosen image black and white (fig. 3), removed the background and extended the canvas in white to give me space to draw all the "stuff in my head" (fig. 4).

Fig. 4

Fig. 3

3. Illustration studies. I did some preliminary drawings as a study for what I might draw on the photographic image (fig.5). This is a collection of things on my desk and things from my imagination.

Fig. 5

4. Drawing by hand. I printed out the photographic image on matt photo rag paper (which as well as making beautiful photographic prints is also lovely to draw on) and using pen, I drew over the image to illustrate the "stuff in my head" (fig. 6).  This took about 2 and a half hours. You'll see there is music (the beginning of the Harry Potter theme tune and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata), an Illustration textbook, paint brushes, pencil, tube of paint, an apple (I love my juices), my beloved camera, a copy of Vogue (I get a lot of inspiration from fashion), and various doodles and patterns that keep finding their way from my imagination onto any nearby paper.

Fig. 6

5. Digital colouring and finishing off. I scanned in the drawn image and decided it needed some colour (I had originally envisaged a black and white image). So I used various Photoshop brush tools (I was particularly fond of the airbrush tool) and various colours at an opacity of around 50% to colour in selected parts of the illustration but without losing the detail of the hand-drawn elements. In scanning the image in, I had lost some of the details in the hat, so I brought up the original photo file, moved it across as a top layer, then hid it using a mask and the paint bucket tool in black and then used white brush at around 50% opacity to "paint" back in the detail of the hat from the original image (fig. 7). Finally, I extended the canvas to the left to make a greetings card and printed out a copy to send to my tutor (fig. 8).

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

What I learnt


I really enjoyed combining photography, hand-drawing and then adding colour in using the brush tools in Photoshop. It feels like I am starting to find my style. The advantage with digitally colouring was that I could experiment and see what something looked like without committing to it (since you can always delete a Photoshop layer). I like the hand-drawn elements in the image. I don't think I would have got the same effect by drawing in Photoshop. My drawing skills are definitely improving and I am learning new ways to use Photoshop.

It was also a good process to have a think about my identity, what it is that makes me. What things occupy my thoughts? What inspires me and what do I aspire to do? In this illustration, I've tried to focus on where I am now. Not where I've been, what my past experiences are. Those things, of course, influence who we are right now, but rather than looking back, I wanted this to be a snapshot of the present moment and the ideas and aspirations I have for the future.

Photos from the exhibition!

Click on the link to see some more pictures from yesterday's exhibition (and to check out my new website). It was so much fun!

http://www.liaedwards.com/

I'm exhibiting!

On Feb 11th, the Munich Creative Arts Group will be having a "pop-up gallery" of artwork from a number of artists, along with musical performances and readings of original works.

I'll be showing a selection of black and white landscape photography of the stunning scenery of South West America. Here's a sneak peek:

Here are the details. Hope to see you there!

A Winter Walk Along the Canal - Photo Essay

After all the hubbub of Art Every Day Month, I had a little break back in the UK and spent one lovely morning with my mama walking along the canals in the area. I could tell you all about what we saw, but I think I'll let the pictures do the talking.

All images copyright Lia Edwards 2011. Not to be used without permission.

All images were shot on the Canon 5D MkI with a 100m L f.2.8 macro lens.

Day 29 "Art Every Day Month" - Birds on a Wire

I love all of the amazing leaves growing up the walls in Munich. Here are some I found recently that look like beautiful exotic pink birds on a wire. Nature's art is always my favourite.

Day 24 "Art Every Day Month" - Old Photographs and a bit of Photoshop magic

I'm busy today digitally restoring some old slide photographs of me and my brothers and sisters when we were little. The dust marks are incredible, and a bigger task to remove than I intially thought. I'm making progress, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for my siblings, so instead, here's a piccie of toddler Lia in the snow, altered in photoshop to reduce it just to the basic lines that make up the image.  A bit cheesy, perhaps, but I kind of like it (and the process is certainly quicker than zapping thousands of specs of dust).

Day 16 "Art Every Day Month" - Painting with Light

"Light painting" is a technique I like to play with every now and then when I'm out at night with my camera, so I thought I'd have a play with the technique for today's AEDM. Basically, it just involves setting the camera at a slow enough shutter speed so that you can move the camera around while the shutter is open and "paint" with the available light. It works best if you are somewhere with some bright areas of light, like streetlamps or car headlights. For the ones below, I just took the shots from my balcony, which faces onto a courtyard. The available light came from the lit up windows of the other apartment blocks.  If you try this, do be prepared to look like a raving loon waving your camera around in the dark, but your reward will be some pretty cool abstract art.

Technical notes: These were taken on manual at ISO 640, f.3.2 with the shutter open for 3.2 seconds. I then cropped to a square format and made adjustments to the colour balance and contrast in Photoshop.