Postcards - Creating the Finals.

My completed hand painted finals onto red boards. - not as successful as onto lighter mount board - slightly more difficult to pick out the tones, because the background is so much darker. - the black is not as dramatic. however, from my previous poster editing, I was confident that photoshop could give them a whole new look.
- Do like the still like the effect of the paint. - i tired to not go overboard with the detail - focusing on the face but getting more expressive - leaving something to the imagination.

- after scanning and editing the contrast i played around with different colour combinations - replacing colour, adjusting curves, and hues, i was really pleased with them. I chose i selection of soft colours - beginning with the blue of the poster and creating a pink and yellow to compliment.
- experimented wit different effects - really like the surface blur which i applied - gives a softer edge, faded and obscure in places.

Realisations.
- bit stuck. - although enjoying the paint - feel that i could have used this opportunity to try something different.- although too late to change, i have applied digital editing - perhaps take this further?
- concept. was considering this more on in the designing process - for the poster. but somehow got more caught up in creating the imagery. - feel like its not strong enough - basically just visuals not purposeful meaning really. - have more ideas to give and want to try and still consider what could be added?- what are the cards communicating? - think back to initial ideas. - her emotion.

- New concept ideas;
- eating into/tearing away at her soul
- wearing her down
- two sides of - happy/confident - depressed/insecure
- going against her beliefs.

How to make these visual?
- collage photographs - by hand? digitally?
- 'tearing' - literally tear the paper. - showing the two sides - two layers of print out, different colour - create tears.
- create a ripped hop towards her soul. - gradually spreading out - getting larger - almost engulfing her. -this rage, emotion.

Experiments;

 - I like this idea the best, and have a few ideas about how to improve.
plan. - create hand made tears to print outs- like the jagged edge effect- scan in and compile in photoshop. - potential final.

- Editing Process;
- printing out different colour versions of the same file. - creating these rips by hand - gradually increasing in size. - scanned in with each layer placed on top of one another.
- cutting out / spererating each layer in photoshop - to create a drop shadow for each one.

All separate layers in control panel - to alter the colours and create a drop shadow between each.

- creating drop shadow - effective and easy. created an effective depth between layers - really pleased with how well this worked out.

- enhanced the lighting and saturation but still unsure about the colours? - too different, slightly confusing to look at. - i think the rips make the image more difficult read already -the colours add to this.

- Choosing one tone for each separate postcard was a lot better.  creating slight variations of that shade - with one/2 contrasting colours. the more gradual differentiation between layers worked much better...
- Still found the rips to be too harsh - detail of bettie page is missing. its dominated by the hole.
- created a new layer - altered the opacity - rubbing out areas - keeping stronger over the face so it is clearer. this created a much more balanced image - more subtle amount of obscurity.
- Overall i am really please with how these have turned out. despite initial dislike for the paintings - sticking to and wrestling with the idea worked out for the best. i am glad i was able to incorporate photoshop more in the end, - owe it to the success of these pieces.

Finals: