rusty | Ala'a B.

I admire the natural rusted metal textures so I was thinking to make my own calligraphy designs and textures on metal sheets for the final show. After working on canvas prints, wood and stone, I think metal should be my next step. I wanted to do that when I made the other prints but I couldn’t because the printing services company couldn’t provide them in such a short period of time. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy process or even a quick one, but I really want to try. we’ll see how it goes 🙂

Firts of all I collected data on how to make these rustic effects on metal, and I found very inspiring photographs on this blog:

http://cssdive.com/freebies/examples-of-rusted-metal-texture-designs/

Rust is a term used to describe iron oxides, which is the chemical reaction between iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture forming red oxides.

I need to wait until I travel to Amman in the Easter break to try metal printing. In the mean time, I am working on my 4th photographic print on Styrofoam, surprisingly, painting on it has been a joyful experience, the smoothness of the surface allows achieving several transparent layers, contrasting with the main printed background. This is the main photographic print and my first painting attempt:

Photographic print on foam board 40×50 cm

Acrylics on photographic print 40×50 cm

Digital photographic print

I further developed the print by painting on it using acrylics, adding more contrasting tones and emphasizing the dryness of the land by adding more roughness and hard edges on the background.