For my latest uni project I'm look at how I use photographs to base my paintings on, so I decided to cut out the middle man and just paint directly on photographs. I picked out a few photos from a camping trip in 2003 which were developed from film from a disposable camera.
I used acrylic paint so that it would stick to the prints and dry. I painted people into the scenes based on photographs of other times I've been camping, which brings more life into the otherwise empty image.
I also painted over the sky because in the photos it was just white, so I made it more appealing by making it blue with white clouds.
Painting on to photographs is nothing new; German artist Gerhard Richter has produced over 500 overpainted photographs.
He used reprints of personal photos and smeared the left over paint from that days work across the photo in a spontaneous gesture using a palette knife. Those he judged as unsuccessful were destroyed immediately.
The result is a contrast between the natural tones of the photo and the bright colours of the paint, the photo's smooth surface and the textured paint on top.
For my friend's birthday I decided to make her a fun card based on old-fashioned paper dolls. There are three sliders on the card which move to create a new outfit!
I then folded a piece of A4 card in half and cut four slits of equal length on one side. The length is the combined size of the three sections. 
The widths relate to the spacing of the outfits on the strips of paper.
I then slotted the strips of paper in the card. They can be slid from side to side to reveal a new item of clothing.
As finishing touches I drew two piles of clothes either side of the figure and added a photo of my friend's face. I hope she likes it. 
