As a continuation of creating my project based around the idea of Ethereal landscapes, particularly based around the theme of Galaxies, Space and The Universe I have decided to purchase ink (colours chosen in relation to actual existing Photographs of Space pictured below as inspiration.)
I plan to scan my images using a flat bed scanner once dried, on this post I will talk through the process of making these experiments. I chose to work on A3 Sheets of Acetate as this is an alternative which is much cheaper than perspex or glass and gives virtually identical results, the fact that I have chosen to work on the size of A3 gives me more freedom with my work and able to create bigger prints after scanning them in to the computer.
Starting with the bubble solution by pouring it in certain areas over the acetate which I then began to use the spray bottles filled with ink and diluted with water (as I thought this would work in a similar way to how the spray bottles worked whilst in the darkroom) however this technique was not successful and in fact watered down the ink so much than when it came to being sprayed on to the acetate, it was barely visible to the eye, I think the spray bottles do not work well with acetate and work much better in the darkroom or say to create a very large piece of work, such as A1.
The next technique I tried was to pour ink in small amounts over the bubble solution which created a natural blend of ink and the bubble solution over the acetate to which I then layered the other colours of ink, waited to dry (speeding up the process by using a hairdryer which also manipulated the substance on the page) then repeated until happy with the outcome. I then placed a second sheet over the acetate to create air bubbles which I didn’t intend to happen. Then I added what were to look like stars by flicking white acrylic paint with coarse bristles all over.
My reasoning for creating a piece based on Space and The Universe is purely due to the fact of the society we now live in, when it has become so easy to get too involved and wrapped up in the small things, so much that it has led to a severe increase of anxiety, social anxiety and depression within the middle aged, younger adults, the following generation – it is affecting everyone and I want to show that no one is ever alone through this work. During the creation of these pieces if helped me to forget about any worries I currently had, it was freeing and I want to encourage the idea that we are part of something infinite in this Universe, that if we spent as much time trying to inspire eachother and help eachother as much as we hurt, with unity we could be a lot more powerful.
The experiment below I feel didn’t work very well at all, I feel it doesn’t look or resemble space due to the large areas of ink that look much more abstract and unidentifiable, which isn’t my intent.
When I had scanned my experiments, I noticed that because I had used acetate the background didn’t work well, with this in mind I decided to then scan with a sheet of black card behind the acetate which made a huge difference. I then added the scanned images in to Photoshop, resized, cropped and adjusted the brightness and contrast to make them more defined, below is the result.
Areas Of Photographic Practice B 