Sunday, October 30, 2011

Altered Photographs Play Date

 I spent a fun afternoon Saturday altering photographs in a style my friend S learned at Art Unraveled this year.  She took a workshop with Karen Michel and learned various techniques she shared with us.  I  started with a picture i took of the Wentworth by the Sea, an abandoned grand hotel in New Hampshire i took back in the 80's.  After wetting the photo i started to sand off the edges with fine sand paper.
This is what the hotel looks like today - i just googled it - back in 2003 it was rescued and returned to its former glory!  This makes me very happy.
 But when i took this pic - it was just sitting there - sad and alone - perfect material for a creepy altered photo!
 After sanding off the edges i scraped into the trees and added details with an awl.  Then it went into a coolaid bath (unsweetened!) to turn this ghostly red colour!
 Next i took two picures of my neice and nephew sitting on my mom's back patio steps.  The pictures were taken one year apart.
 Here they are after wetting and sanding off all the background.  See below how they look with some added colour.
Here they are after their coolaid bath and some rubber stamping.
 Here is a beautiful victorian house, or Queen Anne perhaps? taken in Kennebunkport.
 Here it is sanded down.
 Here is my sister and BIL on a mountain top skiing.  I added some stamping to this you can see below.
 Here is a "before" shot at christmas about 16 years ago.  I felt quilty erasing my mom out of this one, but it isn't like i don't have hundreds of other pictures with her in them, right?
 Here is an array of L's altered photos.  She went with interesting graphic designs and lots of hand painting.
Here is a closeup of two of her pictures.  Aren't they magical?
 Here are S's and D's shots.They added collage materials and lots of vibrant colour to transform the mundane snapshot into something artistic.
 Here's Z's images - not quite finished - but really cool how you can take something and turn it into something else!
 Here are more of mine with the sanding and colour tint added.
 Some landscapes.
 D's image of a quilt altered to hightlight this gorgeous tree.
 My husband's family at christmas - they'll all be getting fun and kooky looking paper hats!
Jim and I with our respective mom's in front ot our old flowering apple tree on Mother's Day back in the 90's. Both these ladies are alive and well!
  Check out the bottom left house and scroll back up to see the before - too cool!  I added more colour to these with Caran D'ache crayons and a bit of water.
 We just loved how cool those circles look on this image!
Here are all 16 images i altered yesterday - so much fun to spread them all out the next day and see them with fresh eyes.  I need to add some finishing touches, some captions, some stamps - but aren't they cool!  Thanks as always to our host D for another creative play date.  And to S for showing us how to do this.  Fun times!

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