I experimented with a few paint experiments. In the first I used an old crusty paintbrush to make scratchy, angry red marks over my image which added a raw, branded pattern to the surface. This works well on the lighter tones on the skin, where it decorates the peaceful tones there, however less well on the darker areas, where it can barely be seen.

In the second experiment, I used black ink to highlight certain areas (around the body to make the model stand out) and add a long, winding pattern covering the rest of the photo, which took on a zebra pattern when applied to the lighter tones in the image. I really dislike this image, as I feel like the ink serves no purpose within it (and in fact detracts from the original image), however I felt like it was necessary to experiment with a range of materials to identify their results. I will not be using either of these two processes in my final piece, as I feel they are not successful.

In this experiment, I used a craft knife to scratch over the image and create a angry, violent texture which connects well with the depressed, black mood to this image. I focused the scratching over the model to symbolize the turmoil and to also break up the lack of detail in the dark block black tones on the model's clothing; I left the scratches off the face, so the emotions played out on her facial expressions were still visible to the viewer. This process is not my favorite, however I feel it adds an interesting and effective mood to the image, which I like.

Although I feel at this time I am most likely going to produce my final piece in digital form, I also experimented with methods in the darkroom.

I exposed this image for half the time (six seconds) and then flipped the negative over, laying it on top of the original exposed image for the remaining exposure time. This worked to create a ghostly, gemini effect, which I really like, and I feel works well with the peaceful, wandering facial expression, and the soft, harmonious tones and lines. However, I didn't expose the image for long enough, thus this experiment didn't have enough dark tones so needed to be edited in Photoshop; this made it deteriorate in quality. I'd need to experiment further in the darkroom to find the perfect exposure time if I was going to continue this effect with my final piece.

This experiment is a more of an abstract one. I dipped a paintbrush in developer solution and used it to write a word across the photo paper, before developing the image for the full time. I feel this experiment would have worked better if I had used a smaller paintbrush to give thinner lines to the writing, thus making it more legible and more effective within the photo.

I finally cut up the negative to play around with the arrangement and placement. I overlapped the negatives to create diagnol lines of dramatically darker and lighter tones due to less or more light being let through. The distortion of placement also created an interruption of the body's flowing lines, which created an abstract look to this photo. The overlapping lines look reminiscent of a shattered mirror, which conflicts with the original peaceful feeling to this photo, although I feel this works well in giving the photo a slightly cubist edge in the strong use of lines, and the idea of cutting and re-arranging of the image.