Cliche-Verre

Cliché-Verre is a unique photograph that is made by using a printmaking process of "etching" into the surface of a dried emulsion upon a transparent material like glass or mylar. Using a variety of "printing-plates," normal black and white photographs can be transformed into fascinating abstract, textural shapes and patterns.

Similar to cyanotypes, the cliché-verre process is expressive, allowing you to apply painting and drawing techniques like mark-making to create fascinating and expressive textures.

Create a few practice transparencies to experiment with. Try coating one solid, and then scratching into it, or brushing the ink onto the surface, or watering it down, splattering it, wiping it, using a sponge, or even sticking different textures onto the surface, letting it dry, and then peeling them off, (see leaf texture in slideshow)

Once you have a few to work with, choose images that might work well with the textures and surfaces...Be open-minded and try different possibilities. Contact print to make it negative, use your ortho-lithos, consider layering multiple transparencies together, or creating new ones!

Cliché-Verre Problem

You will be asked to submit a mini-portfolio of three cliche-verre prints. These images should share a visual connection, and be presented together as one work for the critique.

Also, here's a link to a photographer who makes beautiful cliche-verre prints using intricate patterns named Peter Feldstein, a link to his website can be found here.

*Click* #6 Winner: Becky Lamich

"Movement" by Becky Lamich.

*Click* #5 Winner: Marian Akiwumi

"Escape" by Marian Akiwumi

Photo-Letter Composites

Using Photoshop, combine a black and white photograph with a letter form to create two elegant photo-letter composites. Here are the parameters for this assignment:

1) Your composite must conform to the dimensions of 14x14" with the image and the letter form each being 7x7" Your final print resolution should be 300 dpi.

2) Your final design must use a pre-existing typeface, serif or san-serif. If you decide to use a more expressive or hand-drawn typeface, get approval from me first.

Tips for Success:

1) Cropping is key! Your compositions will be square, so you must crop your image carefully.

2) You may edit or alter the typeface in your design, but make sure it's consistent. Use the transform commands in Photoshop to make changes to the letters appearance.

3) Make the connection as seamless as possible, use your sketchbook as inspiration for your ideas.

4) Choose an appropriate typeface. The letter is half of the design, so the kind of typeface you use must integrate well with your image!

5) When finished, save a psd. file (with layers unflattened) and a jpg (w/layers flattened) Upload the jpg to the Flickr discussion pool to turn in.

Final design due on Flickr group pool by: Wed. 12/9

Click #4 Reflection Winner: Renee Higdon

Reflection, by Renee Higdon

Alternative Process #1: Cyanotypes!

Now that you've accumulated a ton of negatives to work from by shooting four rolls of film in the 1st quarter, it's time to use them for something totally new...the alternative processes! I'll demonstrate the process for making a cyanotype this week in class, but in the meantime, start to think about negatives you'd life to work with.

A brief overview of the cyanotype: Discovered by Sir John Hershel (1792-1871) in 1842, a mere 3 years after the “official” announcement of the discovery of photography, the cyanotype was the first non-silver iron process. This alternative process provided photographers with permanent images in an assortment if blue values. A cyanotype is an ultraviolet (UV) sensitive contact printing process that requires, as do most of the non-silver processes, a negative the same size as the final print. Of course you can use transparent, translucent, or opaque objects to make a cyanotype photogram. Combining both processes of using a negative and various objects (like photograms!) to print can allow even more freedom in the printing!

When making a cyanotype, you will need a negative the same size as the final image. This means that you will be using your ortho-litho film to create large negatives, up to 8x10" large. You may even want to tile several 8x10" ortho-lithos together to create an even larger cyanotype! Check out the slideshow below to get some cool ideas for things you might try with this process!

Colleges visiting RHS art department!

Mr. Bill Chenaille, Director of Outreach at the The Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University will be here 5th period on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd to present information about an exciting new program being run through Boston University that focuses on photography, digital film-making, web design, and many other photo-based majors. The campus is in Washington D.C., so for those of you thinking about going to school close to home, this could be a good match.

Also, on Friday, Nov. 13th, a representative from the Savannah College of Art & Design, (SCAD) will be visiting the art department during 5th and 6th period for a special presentation on the school. SCAD offers majors in photography, fashion design, and many other fine arts majors.

Although not confirmed, both representatives may have time for brief, informal portfolio reviews to give you great feedback about developing and improving your portfolio to become more competitive for college applications and scholarship. This could be an awesome opportunity to present your work and make a connection at a great photo program! See me for more information if you're interested!