DISTRESSED and Modified Photo PRINTS

Altered images can be a unique addition to various projects, such as collages, altered art, or journals.
And since this method is a type of freeform artistic process, you can torment your photo print any way you wish.
Only one thing to keep in mind before you get your tools ready is that through you can use an inkjet printout, most distressing techniques won’t work as well with homemade inkjet prints, and for best results you should use a photographic print that was printed in a photo lab or a high-end printing service.
You can begin modifying your photographic print by scratching lines onto the prints using an artist knife. Next, use sandpaper to get rid of the gloss appearance, bring out the color beneath the top layer of the print, and give it a truly distressed appearance.
If you feel adventurous and are brave enough, try spattering or even rubbing household bleach onto your print. Using a cotton ball or a sponge, you can pat the bleach in purposely to some areas of your print, or you might prefer to randomly squirt it on at random.
Another thing you can do is get a bleach pen and use it to write or draw on your print. If you can’t find a bleach pen, use a skewer or a tooth pick, dip it in the bleach, and use as a pen.
Note that the bleach, which starts yellow, will quickly turn into white.
If you like the yellowish appearance you will need to wash off the bleach in water just a few seconds after applying it to the print.
In addition you can randomly add acrylic paints or markers and, at last, lightly sand the print again in order to blend the paints into the print.

This process works well with color, sepia ,or black and white prints.

You can find this article and many other photo processes in my new book:
So Much More than Photography
eBook edition Price: $10
Kindle edition Price: $10
Print edition Price: $35 (Now on sale for $25.20)
Black & White print edition Price: $20

Distressed and modified prints

Altered images can be a unique addition to various projects, such as collages, altered art, or journals.
And since this method is a type of freeform artistic process, you can torment your photo print any way you wish.
Only one thing to keep in mind before you get your tools ready is that most distressing techniques won’t work as well with homemade inkjet prints, and for best results you should use a photographic print that was printed in a photo lab or a high-end printing service.
You can begin modifying your photographic print by scratching lines onto the prints using an artist knife. Next, use sandpaper to get rid of the gloss appearance, bring out the color beneath the top layer of the print, and give it a truly distressed appearance.
If you feel adventurous and are brave enough, try spattering or even rubbing household bleach onto your print. Using a cotton ball or a sponge, you can pat the bleach in purposely to some areas of your print, or you might prefer to randomly squirt it on at random.
Another thing you can do is get a bleach pen and use it to write or draw on your print. If you can’t find a bleach pen, use a skewer or a tooth pick, dip it in the bleach, and use as a pen.
Note that the bleach, which starts yellow, will quickly turn into white.
If you like the yellowish appearance you will need to wash off the bleach in water just a few seconds after applying it to the print.
In addition you can randomly add acrylic paints or markers and, at last, lightly sand the print again in order to blend the paints into the print.

This process works well with color, sepia ,or black and white prints.

Distressed image transfer

If, like me, you are a fan of the altered and distressed appearance of photos you might
want to give this one a try. You can choose any surface for this transfer but I prefer wood
surfaces such as artist wood panel or any type of wooden blocks.
1) Thoroughly cover the surface you are transferring to with acrylic black paint
and let it completely dry.
2) Use white acrylic paint to cover over the black paint, but let the black paint to
show through in some areas.
3) Use a big nail or a screw or any other tool to scratch and distress the surface.
4) Using gel medium adhere a few pieces of old newspaper or old dictionary and lightly cover
them with white paint.
5) Now that your surface is ready you can transfer a photocopy of your image into the surface using gel medium or Mod Podge. Images with a lot of white space or big sky area work best with this method. (if you are not sure how to do a photo transfer check out the “Image transfer” category or tag)
6) Don’t forget to protect your art work with a clear protective finish.

one page of polaroids

Metallic pens and bright permanent markers were used to outline, color, and add the text. To finalize some of the images, I peeled off the familiar Polaroid border in order to reveal the colorful edges

Into the sunset and ever after

One of my favorite things about creative photography is working directly into the photo print. This time I combined two methods that until now I did independently: hand coloring and distressing prints.
As far as the hand coloring goes there are a few ways to color and paint photographs, and they can be divided into two groups: traditional hand coloring using oil paints such as Marshals paints or the way I prefer doing it, free form painting.
Using free form is about mixing different painting approaches and tools, painting rather than coloring, stamping and adding text.
So basically the idea is to have fun with it and experiment with various ideas and methods.
Here I began with sanding the print which was printed on a glossy paper in order to rid of the shiny finish. Next I used an artist knife to outline the lines in the picture. I then painted the photo using acrylic paints to bring out the feel of the charming evening hour when this picture was taken. And finally using acrylic paints I stamped the photo, no special reason, just because.

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Happy Earth Day !
Don’t forget to leave all the lights on when you leave home, drive your over-sized SUV over your neighbor’s stupid organic garden, cut down a couple of trees and dispose of used cans and bottles in the trash can. OK?