When artists begin working with new styles and methods, as I did with the Kaleidoscope style, it becomes clear from the start that surprises, such as Superheroes Dilemma, are very common. Turning several views of an image over and on top of each other results in final images that can be dismal failures or great successes. This is the simply the result the artist is leaving the door wide open to the unexpected.
The richness and complexities of an image layered over itself can create a final result that is a playground for the eye, an image that upon a close examination presents an astonishing number of hidden gems. The main surprise in this image is our superhero which does not exist in my original. The face, with red lips and mask, is a result of building a Kaleidoscope image.
To begin, I elongated my image and flipped the image over onto itself, making the left and right sides rather crowded and leaving the center face standing out from the crowd. It still looked a little bit sparse on either side until the smiling figure was added. It worked the best when left to lean in a little bit. Removing the top of the head kept the group of faces from looking like a dark clump.
To create the Kaleidoscope, I copied the image and rotated it three times. Not at all very successful. I erased some details and added others but that didn’t work. After playing with it for a while I was ready to discard it and move on. But before I quit, I thought about what would happen if I turned it 45 degrees. Surprise (pleasant to be sure)! After adjusting the center point of the image and refining some details I was happy with the results. The name came several days later when I was creating my final tiff.
From my first experiments with figures to the Kaleidoscopic images that I am doing now, the unexpected has been at the forefront of my work. Can’t wait to see what comes in the future.