Full Body Prints
During my second year on my Fine Art course at the University of Derby, I based two semesters worth of work on my friends, experiences and University life in general.
I collected a series of my own images throughout those semesters, and took my own whenever it came to nights out in clubs, or gallery visits with my friends. Every time there was something social going on within my friendship group or my flat, I always had my camera or phone at the ready so I could collect materials for when I needed to print again.
Not only did this amount to hundreds of images saved over a series of different memory cards, it also gave me enough source material to be able to create a good, large series of work for my prints.
​
To create these images, there are quite a few different steps that I have to follow.
It begins with editing the image, I use photoshop to isolate parts of the body that I want to print in a certain colour, these areas are then turned completely black so they can be exposed onto a screen, They are always separated and placed into a different file so when it comes to printing them out through the computers, I know that this individual part Is going to be one colour.
There is always a base layer and a final layer, the base layer I print in a light skin tone and it is always created by blacking out the whole of original image. The final layer is created by using photoshop to turn the original image into a Bitmap image, this layer adds in all of the missing details and lines that the print needs in order to be finalised.
​
These images all have a minimum of 7 layers, even though they may not be visible, there are always 7 layers that have definitely been printed within my pieces.
Selina is one of my friends from the Netherlands, as a starting point, I asked if she had any kind of full body images that I could possibly use to begin my print project with.
She is also an art student, meaning that she had plenty for me to choose from, also creating a really positive starting point for the rest of my work to then follow on from.
The second image that Selina let me use, is of her sat in a trolley in the middle of a field.
The image was originally used for her own project, but as It needed extensive editing it was still ok to be used.
Ellie is one of my closest friends at University, so it made sense to create a large print of her.
This set of four is made up of 8 layers each, with variations of different bright colours in order to bring the image to life.
The only two colours that stayed the same throughout was the base layer for the skin, and the yellow hair colour.