Views from Oman

OMAN

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I dont see myself or sell myself as a photographer, But it is a medium I love messing about with. I've a pokey little digital camera and wanted to throw a bit of fun into my snaps than just a default photograph of something.

My dads a proper old school photographer and I think it horrifies him when he sees me double exposing 35mm film or taking dozens of really bad off-piste shots of a beautiful landscape.

But its what you get after, yes that is a rubbish shot of a zoomed in roof in the middle of nothing, but take dozens and put them together and it looks great!

CREATIVE RECIPE:

-Stand still and take 6 wide view shots of everything you see in a 180 degree arc.
[these will be your 'canvas' to work from]

-Zoom in and take lots of detail shots of everything around you.
[I like to divide it up, and take say 6 shots from the floor to the sky, then back down again a few degrees to the side and work my way around]

-Open in photoshop and tie together your wide view shots. on their own can look cool.
open up and place the detail shots
[i find 'overlay' and simply resizing really helps piecing together, think of it as a jigsaw]

-enjoy!

ill post again about double exposures soon-a great activity when on an adventure.

Boxpark Xmas Workshop!

Another excellent year lies before us and I cant wait to see what we all get up to and the new people to work with!

[Dear blogger, my new years resolution will be to look after you much more regularly and keep you in the loop with my goings on!]


But first here's a final project on my contribution to 2012...

I collaborated with the Jester Jacques gallery to run a Xmas themed Print Workshop for the lovely members of the public at Boxpark. [Most of them apart from YOU that is] [of course not]

Karen -the owner- is a great curator/organiser/planner, and it was her concept and contacts to do something live for the public at Boxpark. We brainstormed together and we set out to do something fun, xmas themed, but that also showcases the Gallery itself, our [my] skills as an image maker but also teaches people how easy it can be to get into printmaking.

I was asked to prepare everything that was needed.
I made 4 amazing lino cuts,  and 6 spray paint stencils especially xmas themed for the event

out of all the brilliant things i came up with, designed, drew cut into paper or lino
after hours of careful planning
the most popular was my cute picture of a cat.

from now on im thinking about just drawing cats. fuck it

We showed 3 processes that can be done at home, inexpensively and inspire people with how to mix those processes and used these to not only create some amazing prints, but as a xmas card format! 

Lino cut / mono print / Spray paint stencil

We also brilliantly got the well experienced hands of Nathan Gotlib involved! who brought down some Solar Plates, which like lino cut is a relief printing process, but completely different, to give an indication of the brilliant other goodies you can get involved with. 

These are some of the participants prints, the whole event ties beautifully into my creative philosophy of limitations being liberating. with the potential for one colour on the linocut, what else can you acheive through this limitation?
it forces you to be a bit cheeky / experimental and really be creative.

By this limitation we explored things like colour blends, offsetting,  cross process or combining media.
An excellent day out, was very rewarding sharing some of the things i loved and advising people what to get and how to do it when asked about doing it themselves.
brilliant.