Mixed Media Techniques

Throughout this exam period I have been trying out new techniques to improve my work and experiment as to whether I want to develop the mixed media into my final piece or something similar. I have been really pleased with the outcome of the experiments I've done and developed on some of them. The techniques I have tried out through this exam period include the emulsion technique, the selotape transfer, photoshop techniques, the tea bag technique and finally the crackle glaze technique. There wasn't really any of these that I disliked and all of them turned out quite well. I have descriptions of how to do each of them below and also pictures of the final pieces; the real pieces of work will be stuck down into my workbook. 

Emulsion Technique

This was a very messy, but also very easy technique to have a go at. Here are the steps to use this technique:

Cut out the right size of cardboard that suits you and what you want to create. Make sure you get your emulsion and paint brush ready. Then when you’ve done this, print out or collect pictures that you want to be involved within your emulsion technique. (presenting them however you want them to look)

Secondly, you cover all of your cardboard (or however much you want) with the emulsion.

While the emulsion is still wet, you then paint the picture side of your image with the emulsion and stick it downwards onto the cardboard. Make sure it is stuck down well.

Once you have done all of this, you then wait for your cardboard to dry. This may take up to 24 hours to dry properly as it will not work if it’s still a little bit wet/damp.

When you are sure that your cardboard is bone dry, you then get a small sponge and a bowl of water. Make sure the sponge is really wet and squeeze the water out of the sponge onto the emulsion so it’s really damp.

Once you have done this, you need to then start gently scraping the emulsion off of the cardboard with the sponge.

After you’ve done this, if you left the emulsion to dry for long enough it should have worked well. The picture of my final outcome is below.

I really enjoyed having a go at the Emulsion technique and thought I would be a little more experimental by trying out a couple of collages full of my first two shoots. When I went to take the emulsion off, however, parts of the pictures came off and I wasn’t too happy with it. Due to this I thought I would attempt it again and experiment even further. As I wanted to involve all of my orchestra photographs I thought I would do an even bigger collage to fit them all in. I wanted it to turn out like an orchestra arrangement. I placed all of the photographs of the same instruments next to each other; however ripping the sides of the photographs slightly to make it look more creative. I had some bigger photographs than others and I placed more emulsion on some parts of the collage than others. This was also to hopefully make it look a little more creative and exciting to look at. I found it quite difficult to arrange and create as you can’t actually see the front and so you have to try your best to put all the photographs in the right places and on the right angle to fit the collage and it took me a very long time. After I had stuck all of the photographs down onto the big piece of cardboard, I printed out some more random photos so that I could rip them up and stick pieces in between the little cracks and fill the collage up a little more. I also wanted to put some around the edges so that there wasn’t a completely straight edge and so that it looked a little more messy to make that artistic look. Once again, however, it was hard removing the emulsion off of the photographs without parts coming off and so I had to put up with this and take a very long time being as careful as I could. It did turn out well though and it's quite nice to have the messy look to it 
as it makes it look original and unique which was what I was aiming to do.

These are the two first emulsion transfers I did. I am pleased with them; however, as you have to be very delicate with them so that the picture doesn't come off with it, parts of the image were taken off from me rubbing the emulsion off. It is very hard to take the emulsion off without any bits at all coming off and so this is why these two pieces have tiny bits of the picture missing. Both of these pieces of work are stuck down into my workbook. Overall I am quite impressed with them.

 

Crackleglaze Technique

I really enjoyed trying out this new technique as it’s another quick and simple one to do. All you simply have to do is get some material you want to use, cardboard that is a bit ripped up works best in my opinion, and then you get two colours of your choice in paint and also some pva glue. You then paint on one of the colours that you’ve chosen, straight after paint the other colour on…and then finally, paint on the glue over the top. This is where the name ‘crackleglaze’ has come from as the glue makes the two paints crackle up and separate as it dries. Mine didn’t turn out as great as I hoped it would as there wasn’t as much crackle as I wanted and so when I scan it into the computer and edit it into Photoshop, I will see how it turns out. If it isn’t how I want it or I would prefer a little more crackle within the paint, I will experiment with it again and have another go. I am going to wait until I do my final shoot with my musician in however, as I think it will look really good layered on top of that.

This is my cropped scanned in image of the crackleglaze technique and even though the crackle didn't work out too well it still looks good on the computer screen in my opinion. Once I have taken the final shoot of George I will then edit this image into a best print of the final shoot and post it up on my blog.

Teabag Technique

I really love this technique because it is SO easy, yet so effective and creative. The only problem with this technique however, is that it would only be relative to your topic if you’re doing something along the lines of teabags, such as food related. We tried the technique out in class anyway, to widen our knowledge of different techniques that we could possibly use. This is how to do it:

Depending on how many you want to do, get the right amount of teabags to suit your preference. Print off the pictures you are going to want to use and also have an iron, a newspaper and a candle ready.

Turn the iron on so that it’s at a good heat when you go to use it. Cut a neat slit on one side of the teabag and empty out the contents. If you leave some tea within the bag is up to you. The pictures will have to have been cut into the size of the teabag or just a little bit smaller so that it can fit into the slit.

Once the pictures have been fitted into the teabag, you then cover them with candle wax. To do this a knife can be used to slice pieces off.

 Once the teabag is covered in candle wax, it then needs to be covered over by a few sheets of newspaper. This is so that the candle wax doesn’t ruin the iron.

  After this, iron over the teabag area for around 30 seconds; keep checking how it’s looking and carry on as much as it suits you and how you want it/them to turn out.

Once you have covered the teabags with the iron for a considerable amount of time, they should have turned out looking really good. I know I was really pleased with mine. I really enjoyed this technique as it's so easy and simple to do. You can do it really quickly and they look so good. The only problem with this technique is the relevance towards the subject you're doing. The fact that I'm doing music and musicians, mine don't really fit in with the subject of tea; however within my coursework I used this technique and the photo shoot was linked with tea so this worked really well. Here are the tea bags I've done with the smoke shoot from my music and musicians theme however, and I've stuck them down right at the front of my exam workbook because I didn't have any space to put them anywhere else.

Selotape Transfer

Sellotape transfer is a really quick and easy way to experiment with a new technique. I really enjoyed doing this and will definitely use it again in the future. The way you use this technique is in this way:

1.      Print off picture/s that you want to be transferred onto the sellotape.

2.      Cut out the image/s and put them face up onto the table.
3.      You then place the sellotape all over the picture, so that it is covering the whole picture/collage and also stuck down onto the table.
4.      Once the picture/s are all stuck down onto the table you need to get a ruler and scrape down really hard on all areas of the image/s that you want transferred onto the sellotape.
5.      Once you have pressed down on all areas of the picture/s, you then pull the sellotape off of the table with the image still attached to it and turn it upside down.
6.      You now get a soft sponge and a little container full of water. Make sure the sponge is really soaked with water and you gently squeeze all of the water onto the upside down picture/s.
7.      Finally, once the picture/s are really wet and damp, you start to scrape the wet paper off of the picture/s with the sponge until it’s all off and you are left with the sellotape transfer. This is the final stage and once all of the paper has been taken off, you just leave the sellotape to dry.

This is how you do the sellotape transfer and how simple it can be. I really enjoyed experimenting with this technique as even though it’s easy to do, it’s also really fun and the outcome is great. In class we tried out this technique for the first time and chose photographs from the internet that relate to our subject/topic or the atmosphere/techniques we want to use within our own exam shoots. The sellotape transfer I did myself is shown below. I placed it on the window in my bedroom so that you could see it a lot clearer. Once I have done a couple more shoots and have captured some really great images I am going to give the sellotape transfer technique another go to see how they come out.