Cropping and Compiling

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to abstract images, especially if they increase the chance of a random result. I'm a great believer in the power of serendipity!

Here, I played again with images from high rise buildings. I cropped out small sections from the A3 size image in the last post and combined them into strips using the Smart Objects feature in Photoshop Elements that I find so useful. After much playing, I generated a large number of these rectangular images and recombined a selection into one A4 document ready for printing.

I used a new-to-me idea involving a sheet of computer address labels (size not specified) recommended in Shelley Rhodes' lovely book, Sketchbook Explorations for mixed-media and textile artists. The details are given here. The cover gives just a taster of the inspiration and delight that lurks inside! (From reading it, I have a whole raft of other new ideas to try out.)

This time, the idea was to print out the images onto the labels from the PC, peel them off the backing and reassemble them in a different order and see what results. As I had hoped, with little control over where the labels would cut the images and because the labels on the sheets were separated by narrow spacers, there was a satisfying element of the random in the end results which greatly appealed to me. The strips shown above give a sample.

I then decided to reassemble pairs of labels that seemed to work well together or provide contrast with one another, spacing them about half a centimetre apart on a white mount.

This whole process of abstraction is so much one of trial and discard and I save only a small proportion of the early images I generate - but that's what it's all about - edging gently towards a viable larger image that satisfies me and that I can work with.

This time, there are some small selections I especially like - generally the simpler ones - and which I will develop further.