Soon after the portrait of Ifzal the Carpenter’s Peak with orange and blue colouration was brought into the studio Mohammed added to it with expressive blue splashes, dots and texts. An opportunity to exhibit the image. Before submission Mohammed wanted to review the image as he was not 100% happy with the depiction. It was not expressive enough as an image and of the subject. It was ‘too much a conventional portrait’ and not enough an image with visual contributions. Firstly the text at top right had to be softened to reduce the literal quality. The explosive marks from the bottom were added to with more splashes, streaks and half tone dot patterns. The final addition of thrown fluorescent pink paint created a dynamic splash and colour. Placing the now stiff paper vertically on the studio white wall both artists agreed the new image was more effective and perhaps complete. Mohammed looked again and expressed his feeling that something more dramatic was needed. More pink, More interruptive of the portrait. Rather than attack the image he pictured it with the iPad and began to layer different ideas, colours and transparencies The blatant pink thick stripe, with elements of the under drawing peering through was favoured. Trialling on the iPad gives the possibility of seeing what can be applied to the image virtually without actual application. Assessment can be made of differing approaches before deciding what potential is turned into reality and an ‘actual occasion’ Something that is refereed to by Erin Manning in The Minor Gesture: ‘Actual occasions are the coming- into- being of indeterminacy where potentiality passes into realization, (Whitehead 1978: 29).
Shall we, Shan’t we we ask ourselves? We shall. A long straight edge mask is laid and measured to be 22cm from the left edge. Mohammed began spraying on the exposed space to the left of the subject, encroaching on his arm, but not head. Leaving some of the drawn image and angled text apparent he led the paint build up before dragging a stencil edge down the stripe to create a visceral quality beyond the smooth sprayed paint. The stripe diverted from the prioritised portrait nature of the image by putting a shape between the viewer and the figure. However the stripe in some areas is transparent and deflects from the perception of a sold wall between viewer and subject.
first collaboration on Afzal image 
tentative 
masked portrait 
finding stencil opps 
half tone dot stencil 
blue dots 
blue slash 
fire fluorescent pink 
iPad trials 
yellow stripe 
pink stripe 
pink dots 
pink mask 
pink spray 
pink stripe applied with transparencies 
apply stripe to another collaboration 
tested with iPhone filters
Finally having completed the IFZAL image another portrait collaboration was pulled out to receive a similar visual treatment.
