Final piece

Final piece

This post basically explains my final piece and how it was produced. In this post unless you've read my previous pages you'll be referring back quite a lot so I hope you're prepared.

Method:

 First you'll need to grab your equipment which consists of, acrylic paint, coloured pencils, graphical pen at sizes 0.5 and 0.3, sewing machine with light&dark blue, orange, green and black thread with an orange bobbin and lastly water colours.
 Next you need to start by drawing out your design onto cartridge paper.
After that you need to start painting which is explained in my previous posts, start with cool colours on the nose then warm for the mouth, followed by cool again for the face. Remember to leave the eyes as realistic as possible and don't forget to switch brush size to create extra detail. Leave to dry before you begin the next stage. 
Once the hairs done you can start on the hair. Make sure your pencils are sharp and begin to add detail to the care using fine lines and building up tone by placing the pencil lines closer together and also using the black pencil to add depth. (More detail on mum previous post)
Since pencils don't need to dry you can start straight away on the next process which is the ears. For this start by drawing out the basic shapes and direction on the fur on the ears using the 0.5 pen then begin to zentangle the ears using the 0.3 the pattern should consist of basic shapes to create a in-depth pattern. You can also use the 0.5 to shade in the pattern.
 Next you'll need to set up the sewing machine. Make sure your design has a backing sheet behind it as it creates a thicker layer to be sewed on and prevents the paper ripping. Once this is done thread up with the light blue thread first and using the free hand stitch start sewing into the lighter areas of blue on Lilly's face, this is to highlight the areas of light and dark. After switch with the dark blue and repeat the process. With the orange thread outline the nose and snout, this prevents the paint from having a flat look. Then move onto the collar using green and orange sew each section very roughly you don't need to be neat here. After that do the same to the buckle.
 Next move onto your water colour wash for the background. For this wet the page lightly and applying a little paint coat the page in greens and blue to give a light vibe. Be careful to not wet the page too much to avoid the page curling. 
 Leave to dry , while it's during clean up your area. 
The last thing that can be done to your piece is mounted.














Health & safety:

Be careful using the sewing machine. Keep your fingers away from the needle. Avoid drinking near the plug socket.
 Clean up after yourself. 

Machine stitch onto paper

Machine stitch onto paper.

This was my last piece of development. This was also probably the most important as well because if this failed i'd have had to have found a new material to try my experiments on. 

Method:

1. Gather your equipment, which is your sewing machine, thread and pencil.
2. Next draw out your design.
3. After set up your sewing machine (refer back). Then using a test piece try out the stitch.
4. Once you're happy you can start to stitch your design. This doesn't have to be perfect/fancy because its just seeing if the technique worked. 
5. After that since the technique work you can use it on your final piece. Now pack up your equipment. 

Health & safety

1. Be careful when setting up the sewing machine, keep water away and be careful with the needle.
2. Hold the sewing machine with two hands and place it down carefully.
3. Keep your fingers away from the needle. 
4. Make sure the cable is plugged in properly. 
5. Clean up after yourself.

Batik

Batik process.

This experiment was used to take my zentangle pieces in a new direction, this technique is simple but gives amazingly beautiful results.

Method:

1. First gather your equipment which is your batik pot and your canting tool. Turn the pot on so the wax has time to melt while you're designing your pattern.
2. Next get a piece of cloth and with a pencil carefully draw your design, be aware to not make your design to delicate and detailed as the canting tool has a wide nib. Don't forget to place sugar paper under the cloth as the wax can leak through.
3. Once you've done this and your wax has melted, you can begin to draw with the wax. To do this gather the wax into the top of the canting tool (looks kind of like a bowl). This allows the wax to flow through the tool and pour out of the nib. You will have to keep refilling this as the wax runs out quickly.
4. Then you can draw your pattern, using the tool as if it was a pen.
5. After you've done turn off the wax and leave the cloth piece to dry.
6. Next you need to select your coloured cloth dye, and paint over the pattern anyway you like. For me I used a paint brush and split the pattern into sections.
7. Leave it to dry again until its completely dry.
8. Then you need to remove the wax to do this you'll need to gather an iron, sugar paper and news paper.
9. Turn the iron on and allow it to heat up, next you need to place the news paper down then sandwich your design between the sugar paper, then place that on top of the news paper.
10. Begin to iron over the top of the sugar paper. Make sure to keep turning the sugar paper and when it becomes too wet change it for a different piece.
11. The idea behind this is to iron it until there is no more wax left on the design.
12. Once all that is done you need to clean up your area.

Health & safety 

1. Be careful when using the wax, if you burn your hands, wash them under cold water.
2. The same goes for the iron, if you burn yourself run the area under cold water.
3. Make sure you clean up after yourself.
4. Be careful using the dye avoid getting it on your clothes.

Final idea development.

Final idea development. 

This post will talk and explain how my recent final idea development came about. It will be split up into sections to show how I produced one piece then how I further developed that.

Method: Charlotte and Lucia combination.

1.  First I gathered my material, which consisted of, fine pens, pencils, acrylic paint, water colour's and a pot of water.
2. Next you'll need to draw out your design, Which will be different as you can see from the above example. Since I'm combining Charlotte and Lucia I split the face in half, one side having my features and the others with lilly's.
3. Then I painted in lilly's features in the traditional colour's of browns, blacks and white, refer back to Charlotte's post on this painting technique. After allow the paint to dry to avoid smudging the paint when wet.
4. Following this I then put in the details on my side of the face, for this I used water colours and ink, the idea behind it was to make it as illustrative as possible to clash with the semi-realist features on lilly.
5. For the eyes and lips  I used water colour's and a wash for the colour to the cheeks and the shadow around the nose. 
6. I also did a second copy of this, but in the warm and cool colours and instead of water colours for the lips I used Indian ink.
7. Then clean up the paint brushes and your work area. You'll be needing the acrylic paint and pens again.

My next stage of development was solely focusing on the facial features. For this experiment I discarded Lucia's style because i found it wasn't benefiting for the face so I'd apply it somewhere else later.

Method: 

1. First sketch out your image. I changed my composition for this because i felt it looked better at an angle.
2. Next go over the sketch in pen, this doesn't have to be delicate it can be messy. 
3. Following this you can start painting in the style of Charlotte, refer back to my post on her if you're still unsure. It's basically painting as accurately as you can and getting the eyes as realistic as possible. Don't forget to switch brush sizes when doing more delicate details.
4. I also did a version in contrasting colours because I was still unsure which palette I preferred this helped me decide.
5. You can now put away your brown acrylic paint because its not longer needed. Also clean out your brushes and water pot because more painting is coming up. 

For this development I added in Lucia and Madge Gill (zentangle). The idea behind this experiment was to see if all of these elements combined would work.

Method:

1. For this you'll need a wider range of material so go gather the rest of the equipment which is, charcoal, soft pastels, pens and acrylic.
2. Next sketch out your design like you did for the experiment before, this time you don't need to go over it with pen .
3. Then begin painting just like you did before, using the warm and cool colours (blues, greens, reds and yellows) to save time I just painted half of the face. 
4. The next stage of development is doing the zentangle of the ears, using the pen. Refer back to my zentangle post if you've forgotten how to do it. Again i just used basic patterns of squares, triangles and circles.
5. Then its on to the hair, for this I referred back to the beginning of my development. This is were Lucia comes in. Since her style didn't work with the face I chose to do it with the hair. 
6. To do this take your soft (brown) pastel, and produce long strokes to imitate the movement of hair. Then use the charcoal to add definition and depth to the hair. This is especially important when trying to blend the ears into the hair. I went over the zentangle with the pastel to make the blending easier.
7. Don't forget to hair spray it to make the charcoal and pastel stick. Make sure to do this in a ventilated room or outside.
   

The final bit of development comes from experimenting with the surface material. For this you'll need little test pieces of calico. This process is split into four sections because you'll be dissecting the image and testing each individual piece separately

Method:

1. First you need to sketch out just the face onto the calico, don't include the hair or collar.
2. Then attempt to paint onto the calico. Before you do this you'll need to put a piece of paper under the calico to stop the paint seeping through onto the table.
3. Paint the same way you have been since the start of this development.
4. Then you need to go and get a sewing machine out. To set up a sewing machine refer back to your notes. Start by using a light blue thread.
5. Once that's done using the free hand stitch, begin to sew/highlight the areas of lighter shades of blue, then switch the thread to orange and do the same for the snout of the dog, then the same with dark blue, this time outlining the darker areas.Then pack up the sewing machine.
6. After that you'll need to get another piece of calico and this time try the hair out, using soft pastels and charcoal, just repeat step 6 from the previous experiment just don't worry about the ears because they haven't been drawn on yet. This is just a quick experiment.
7. Then you need another piece and with this split it into two because on one half you'll be experimenting with the collar and on the other the ears. 
8. First the ears, draw them out in pencil then proceed to zentangle the inside of the ears with a pen, make sure the pen is working. Refer back to the zentangle post.
9. Then move onto the collar. Start out by sketching the rough outline.
10. Then thread up the needle with either green or orange. Then start out using back stitch to fill in the sketch. Following lilly's original collar design. For the buckle switch to a black thread.
11. After that clean up your work area make sure the equipment is packed away.
    
    

Health & safety.

1. Clean up after you've finished.
2. Make sure when you use the hair spray that you're in a well ventilated room or outside.
3. Be careful not to prick yourself with the needle.
4. If you get anything in your eye or mouth wash it out with cold water.

Zentangle colour development

Inverting colour on zentangle.

For this experiment I decide to play around digitally with one of my existing zentangle pieces. For this I inverted the black and white then proceeded to play around with colour.

Method:

1. First I scanned my image, to do this refer back to my how to scan post.
2. Photoshop should already be open, so you need to unlock the layer. (it's the little lock next to the layers section)
3. Next you need to play around with levels (to find levels refer back to my photoshop post). You need to do this to make the darker areas more black for a invert of colour.
4. Then go to the select button, find colour range.
5. Select the black nose with the eyedropper tool.
6. Then you need to change the fuzziness this is in the colour range section. You need to change the fuzziness to the right, this enables the finer black details to be picked up.
7. Then create a new layer (this again is on my photoshop post). Make sure this new layer is highlighted.
8. Then make sure your main colour is black, at the bottom of the tool column. Then go to edit and select fill, change the fill option to the foreground.
9. Go back to the select button and press inverse.
10. Select the clone tool, press the alt key to make a selection. Do this next to the area you want to tone, select the same tone. This step was used to get rid of the annotation around my original design. (so I cloned the black area to hide the writing, you  paint over the top.)
11. This will inverse the black and white. Make sure you save your work encase of computer malfunction.

Method for the colour development. 

1. Lock your layer down to keep the inverse intact. Make sure this layer is above the new layer you're about to make. So only the colour can be seen through the areas of white.
2. Then create a new layer.
3. Play around with the paint tools, adjust the size and shape.
4. Don't forget to save your work.

Further development.

This development was done in order to create a traditional outcome compared to the digital one. I basically tried to recreate the digital colour versions using a range of materials such as pencil and Indian ink.

Method: 

1. First you need to print out the blank inverse copies of lilly zentangled. 
2. Then gather your material, which for me was ink, coloured pencil and watercolours and a pot of water.
3. The method is the same for each material so just repeat the steps but switch material.
4. Okay take your water colours and decide on which colour you wish to use. 
5. Then decide which style you'd like, it can either be neat (where you stick to the pattern and paint within the lines) or messy (this is where you create a wash over the whole image and blend the colours together to create a almost rainbow effect).
6. So after you've decide its time to get to work. Make sure your paintbrush is being regularly cleaned because you don't want any murky colours. 
7. After you've done you need to clean up your area and make sure all the equipment is cleaned and put away.

Etching & development

Etching development.

For this development it was used to widen my range of development. This development worked in three stages, and it was used on both my ideas.

Methods:

1. First I had to round up my resources which was made up of, an etching plate, etching tool, fabric, pen, ink and thread.
2. The first thing I did was I made up my etching plate, I split it into sections. The first area was made up of lilly's features and the second half was made up of my second idea the layered face with dog ears.
3. After that I applied my etching ink to lilly's nose one solid colour. Then I proceeded to print it (for that method refer back to my post on dry point/etching)
4. Then after it was printed I washed off the ink and re-inked the nose again this time in a different colour, I then re-printed onto my previous print this time I adjusted the plate so the print would be layered. 
5. I then repeated stage 4 to produce a print in the style of moises.
6. For the second section I repeated step 3, but this time I also added chine colle, (for that look back to my etching post)
7. After that i worked back into the print with ink. I used the ink to zentangle the ears. I zentangled each ear in a different colour. I also used the ink to fill in the hat. 
8. I also printed onto fabric. I worked back into it with ink, pen and stitch.
9. I used the pen to zentangle the ears. For the zentangle use a simple pattern of squares, circles and triangles.
10. I used the ink to block in colour in the hair, lips and hat. I used three different colours as i wanted to accurately represent the original colours, which consisted of brown/orange for the hair, black for the hat and pink for the lips. I used a paint brush to fill in the colour as it can cover a larger area faster.
11. I then moved onto the collar which was made up of running stitch and back stitch. (Previous posts show how to achieve this) I used a green thread which is one of the dominating colours on the original collar. If I had, had more thread I would have filled the whole collar with stitch.

Health & safety

1. Be careful with the needle so you don't end up pricking your finger.
2. Clean up once you've finished.
3. Be careful not to spill the ink.

Lucia, shin & moises development

Lucia, Shin & Moises devlopment.

For this development I produced 6 different pieces each being developed from the previous one. I also photocopied the original one to save time. For this development I also added in zentangle.

Method:

1. First you need to gather your equipment. Pen, watercolours, oil pastels, pastels and acrylic paint.
2. The first thing I did was, I drew out a simple line drawing of my second idea, keeping in tac the facial features, I then used Moises technique and layered up my drawing with different facial line images, removing the facial features. 
3. Next I went back over the main lines to make them bolder, so they could stand out. I went over the different faces and the hats. 
4. For my second piece I added in the watercolour, I used the same technique as in my previous lucia post. The  difference to this was I added in the hair using a brown wash to just highlight the section of hair. I also added zentangle to the dog ears similar to my zentangle post, using a pen.
5. After that I produced my third piece, I repeated steps 1-4. I also changed the collar of the colour to a pastel purple, simply because I was experimenting with colour. After that I used pastels to create the same type of halo effect I used on my Shin and Lucia experiment. I chose to do opposite colours, black and white against orange and yellow.
6. After that I produced my fouth piece, This one was much simpler then the rest. I followed steps 1-4 except I didn't add the hair because I think it looks better without it. 
7. Then I photocopied my fourth piece to save me time.
8. For my fifth piece using the photocopy of my third one, I added oil pastels to the outer edge of the face, it gave a more crisp cut feeling compared to the soft pastel.
9. Then for my sixth  piece I repeated step 8. I also added acrylic paint. I used Shin's style on the hair (layering the paint using short brush strokes)  For this I painted across the different sections of hair to make them stand out, so each face would look more prominent. But this didn't have the desired effect.
10. For my seventh and final piece I didn't add the oil pastels this time, instead I focused on the hair instead, I only painted the one hair section this time, I painted the hair that belonged to the starting face. I used Shin's style short brush strokes, using multicoloured murky colours.
11. Wash out the paintbrushes and clean up your work surface.

Health & safety 

1. Clean up after you're finished.
2. If paint or oil pastels get into your eyes wash them out straight away.
3. Don't eat when you're working,
   
   
   
   
   

Clay post

Clay experiment.

Using clay helped me widen my resources and enabled me to see which dimension I wanted to work in, either 3D or 2D. I used clay on my first idea, it was a simple head shot.

Method:

1. First gather your equipment. Rolling pin, clay, sugar paper, carving tools and a pot of water.
2. Take a chunk on clay, then roll it out till its the thickness of two pound coins stacked on top of each other.
3. Next you want to carve out the basic structure, for me it was just lilly's head. Then take off the excess clay. Lightly imprint the other features e.g. ears, nose and eyes.
4. Next you want to build up the features, First start with the eyes. Roll out the basic shape for the eyes then using water mould it into the structure. Be careful not to apply too much water.
5. Then start with the nose, dig out a little crevasses to give the impression of the nose being raised, you can do the same for the ears and the area behind the ears.
6. Then add in the finer details using a small sharp tool. Start with the detail in the ears, using the tool to create lines and direction, add small sharp strokes to imitate fur. Then you can start with the whiskers and nose. 
7. Then put the clay piece into the kilm. For a bisque firing. This lasts for about 2 hours. 
8. After its out of the kilm you can start painting. As the clay has reached the leather hard stage. You first have to mix the powered paint with water. I used browns and blacks to highlight light and dark tones. Once its dry it can be glazed and put back in the kilm.

Health & safety

1. Clay dust- This can be very dangerous is inhaled over a long period of time. 
2. Use a wet sponge to clean up clay dust.
3. Always wash off your equipment after use. 
4. No eating in the studio.

Moises Mahiques & zentangle

Moises Mahiques experiment.

For Moises Mahiques experiment I used it on my  first initial idea but I chose to only use lilly's head. The style of moises is kind of like a frenzy, an image repeatedly repeated but each time the image is slightly changed. For my experiment I only chose three layers. 

Method:

1. First I had to choose the three images of my dog I wanted to layer
2. Next grab your equipment which is only a pen. 
3. Then you start the drawing, the basic idea behind it is to produce a simple line drawing. For the first drawing I added both eyes from the first image.
4. Then you layer up the drawing with the other two images, again using simple line drawings.
5. Next I chose to do another line drawing this time I only drew one eye, then I proceeded to add layers. 

Zentangle experiment.

For this idea I wanted to explore the use of line further, so instead of using it to produce outlines I wanted to use it to build up one outline from the inside out. The idea behind this is to use simple patterns to build up a image. 

Method: 

1. First you need to grab a pen that won't run out any time soon.
2. Next you need to draw the basic structure. Remember to leave the eyes out because you don't want to loose them within the pattern. 
3. Then its time to get to work, there isn't any instruction on how to do this, you just have to flow with it and remember that you can't make a mistake once you start to zentangle. For my patterns I stuck to lines, circles and triangles.
4. For the eyes and nose i used bold lines, the nose is completely blocked out apart from a shine on the nose. Then for the eyes I used bold line to outline the eyes as well as the iris's to give a ring effect.

Health & safety 

1. I don't think there is any immediate hazards here, 

Further development with zentangle and Moises 

For this development I simply wanted to combine zentangle and moises.

Method: 

1. First I repeated steps 1-4 but this time I added the eyes to each layer. 
2. Next you add the zentangle and for this I chose to only zentangle certain parts instead of the whole image because the layered lines would disappear. 
3. I chose the ears and nose to zentangle for each attempt.
4. I also did another version this time I only used one eye because I wanted to compare the two.
5. For more development you'll need some Indian ink. The idea behind this is to add colour to the zentangle and see how it works with the drawing.
6. I added the colour to the nose, ears and eyes, using a paintbrush as the application would look a lot nicer compared to a nib pen. I didn't stick to one colour because I didn't want to limit the image. I tried to blend the colours so they'd all blend and not divide the pattern.
7. Finally clean up after you're done, wash the paint brush and sides down.

Kwango-ho shin experiment

Kwango-Ho Shin experiment.

The idea behind this experiment was to use Shin's style for my two initial ideas. It was also so i could achieve a better understanding of his expressive painting style. 

Method: 

1. Grab your material, that will consist of acrylic paint, charcoal, pen, pencil and pot of water. 
2. Draw out your image you wish to paint. for me it was my first idea which was a portrait of my dog.
3. Next I outlined the portrait with charcoal to define the basic structure. Once that'd done you can start painting.
4. I used dark but bold colours to give off a murky vibe. To be honest the placement of paint is random because I wanted to give off the messy impression. One thing to keep in mind is to add a direction to the paint to give off the impression of areas of shape and shadow. 
5. The basic idea is to layer the paint thickly. 
6. Next I moved onto my second idea, having a dog features on a human body. For this I repeated step 1-3 but with the charcoal I used it to shade and outline the fair and hat, then I proceeded to paint the face. 
7. I made sure to show areas of light and dark by using black and white. I layered the paint thickly. 
8. Next I choose to paint the dog ears similarly to the face except I kept to brown and black and instead of messy blotched painting style I chose to use fine lines of paint.
9. I also did a copy in black and white but the ears I used multicolour in the same style as the face, but this idea also didn't work.
10. Since the ears didn't give me the desired effect I experimented with different media. I also chose to put in the eyes because that is something that shin does as well with his work. 
11. I repeated 6-7. For the eyes I painted it in with acrylic paint but it gives a cartoon style to the eyes which isn't desired. For the ears I used felt pens, using brown and oranges.This also didnt give me the desired effect because it made the ears look flat. 
12. For my final piece I repeated 6-7 again but instead of having both eyes i chose to have one, again that was painted in with paint. I also used pen again for the ears in the same style as my last experiment. 
13. After all that clean up your area.

1. I also created a larger version of this except this time the style was more similar to shins original style. i kept the processes the same but I changed the hair i painted over the charcoal to create depth, and produce a more slick appearance. I also dragged the paint around the neck area down. i think this gives the image a more distorted atmosphere.   

Health & safety

1. Clean up after yourself once you're finished.
2. If charcoal and paint gets into your eyes wash it out with warm water.

Combining Lucia Emanuela Curzi and Shin.

This development came about because my experiment with shin didn't work as I'd hope, so for this idea I wanted to combine Lucia with shin. 

Method: 

1. First I gathered all my material. Pen, watercolours, acrylic paint, oil pastels and charcoal. 
2. Next I drew two basic outline of my image, this included the hair, hat, facial expression and dog ears.
3. For the first one I started with the face using pen, ink and watercolours. I used pen for the outline of the face as well as the facial features. I also exaggerated the eyelash length. 
4. Next I used water colours to fill in the basic features. The water colour was used for the eyes. I also used it to create a basic wash to create shadow on the nose and give a little bit of colour to the cheeks. It was also used to fill in the lips with a bright pink with a hint of purple. The water colours don't bleed with the pen so they work together pretty well. 
5. Next I used the oil pastels and charcoal on the hair, ears and hat. The charcoal was used to simply fill in the hat with a block of colour. I used the oil pastel for the hair using a simple line pattern that  is built up with different colour pastels like brown, red and black. I then went over it with charcoal to give definitive lines. As for the ears I used curved lines, although this style makes the ears loose definition. 
6. Next I painted the halo effect around the face, kind of like a blooming flower. For this I used a thick layer of murky colours. I used short brush strokes to encase the area around the face. I also added in a lot of black and white.
7. I then went back to the watercolours and used that to paint the collar using green and orange, adding a little tone and texture. 
8. I then proceeded onto my second drawing and basically went about it using the same method although  for step 3 i changed the pen for the watercolours, I used them to outline the face and the facial features. I then used the water colours to fill in the detail. I then repeated the rest of the steps. The water colours didn't work because they gave messy wide lines unlike the pen and it they bleed into each other. 
9. Finally clean up your work area.

Health & safety

1. Clean up after you've finished your work.

Charlotte Caron experiment

Charlotte Caron development.

For this experiment I was experimenting with the style of Charlotte Caron. As my artist response wasn't initially on a photograph so for the development I applied paint to photos. For this I also used a variation of colour. I also did further development by combining Charlotte and shin.

Method: 

1. I photocopied my initial photo so I could experiment multiple times. This also allowed me to get a feel for her style and also gives me time to explore options within the style. 
2. Gather your equipment, acrylic paint, your photos and a water pot.
3. I then proceeded to paint my first photocopy with the traditional colours of an animal, these colours consisted of browns, red, blacks and whites. For some of my photocopies I added in Charlotte's signature spreading of paint from the top and bottom of the face. 
4. The painting style is simply getting an even smooth texture.
5. Then I decided to experiment with a different range of colours similar to shins palette. For this I used warm and cool colours.
6. For the eyes I kept them as realistic as possible. 
7. I then wanted to take the painting further, For this I first painted the face using browns, reds,blacks and white. Except this time I didn't add in Charlotte's strip of paint because I wanted to combine Charlotte and shin. 
8. Once I finished painting the face I moved onto the hair
9. For this I selected a smaller paint brush and coated it with paint because i want to refrain a little bit of detail but i also want it applied thickly.
10.  I layered all different colours on paint onto the hair, Giving it a kind of wavy motion. This development didn't really work so I need a different way to develop it.
11. Clean up your work station.

Health & saftey

1. Make sure you clear up after you've finished painting. 
2. Avoid getting paint in your eyes and mouth. If that ever happens wash out with water.

Photography& acetate

Photograph & acetate.

This experiment was produced as further development for Charlotte Caron. It was to explore other methods to turn my previous failure into a success, (refer back to my Charlotte Caron experiment post). The basic idea behind this experiment was to find alternative options to paint upon a photograph and that's were the idea to use acetate came from. I only choose to paint half of lilly's face because I wanted to work back into the photo with other materials.

Method:

1. First draw out your desired image onto plain paper. Then proceeded then to gather your equipment, which should simply consist of acrylic paint, various sized paint brushes, a pot of water, your photograph, scissors, double sided tape or pva and of course your acetate.
2. Place your acetate over your drawn out image. For me that was half of lilly's face.
3. Begin to paint. I used warm and cool colours because I favoured that palette over the traditional browns and blacks. This colour scheme also links me to one of my previous artist. 
4. Be careful when painting as its all about building up layers, also be aware that paint will take longer to dry because there is nothing to absorb the paint. 
5. Once the painting is finished and dry, clean up your work area. 
6. Then proceed to cut out your painting and layer it over the top of your photograph. I used double sided sticky tape to stick down the acetate. You can also use PVA glue as it dries clear.
7. Once that is dry you can then work back into your photograph with different materials.

Step 6 didn't work for me as I wasn't able to work back into my photograph with the materials I wished to use. This was probably due to the fact the photo was black and white. I didn't continue with this development as there were too many limitations. 

Health & safety

1. Clean up after yourself, especially if water is spilt. 
2. Be careful when using scissors. 
3. Avoid putting paint into your mouth and eyes, if that ever happens wash out with water.