Altered photo tutorial & Saturday Giveaway #4

I hope you all had a lovely new year and have lots of artistic resolutions!

I wanted to start the year off with a tutorial!

I learned the altered photo technique from Karen Michel a few years ago at the Art Bar in Santa Ana, CA. There is something about learning directly from an artist that penetrates deep. I have loved and used this technique so many times and included scratch photos in wall hangings and handmade books and used cut up altered photos as backgrounds for collages or soldered pendants.

So here it goes:

Step 1
Choose the photo you want to alter. It must be a photo that was printed by a professional machine and not an ink jet printer. Choose a photo that has some elements that you want to leave unaltered.



Step 2
First fill a small basin with warm to hot water. Place the photo in the water face down for about a minute.



Step 3
Take the photo out of the water and pat it dry. Don't rub the surface.



Step 4
Immediately, while the photo is damp take a small piece of a sheet of sandpaper to scratch the surface of the photo. Start at the edges and work inwards. Anything you want to leave as normal don't scratch.



Step 5
When you have scratched off all your want you will be left with lot of bits of the emulsion on the surface, they are kind of sticky so it is not easy to wipe them off, so simply dip the photo into the water basin again and the bits will come off. Pat the photo dry again, you are ready to add some color to the photo.



Step 6
Add paint and oil pastels to the photo. I don't put too heavy paint on my photos, rather leaving some of the scratchy surface showing through. I like to blend the paint and pastels with my finger.



Step 7
Then it is time to add some rubber stamps to the photo. I generally use Staz On ink so that it doesn't wipe off.



Step 9
Finally add collage elements to complete the project. As you can see I made this into a small, poetic wall hanging! Details on creating the wall hanging will be in a later post.





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And now to today's GIVEAWAY:

Today's giveaway winner, chosen by the Random Number Generator, is -

Katie of Katiesnestingspot

Congratulations!

Pick your prize from the choices below (click on image to see a larger image) and post it in the comments. I will contact you via email so you can send me, privately, your physical address.


Choice #1 - The wall hanging from the tutorial above.




Choice #2 - Little girl's wall hanging.



Choice #3 - This is an altered book with soldered charm. The pages of the book have stamps and the words to my favorite romantic poem by W.B. Yeates
Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven that starts off "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths..."




For everyone else - Please check back in next Saturday to see if you win something. I will offer a new set of prizes. I will try to offer a range of things in the hopes something will appeal to you when it's your turn!

And of course, if you are not listed as following this blog, you are welcome to do so! Join in the fun.