Shelly Perkins

I work in an unusual way combining traditional drawing and painting with digital collage techniques resulting in highly detailed, and multi-layered digital artwork from which I create just 50 limited edition prints. I start with detailed pencil line drawings, watercolour washes and other painted textures as well as textiles like fake-fur. I take these elements and scan them into the computer, layering the elements into collages using Adobe Photoshop as a tool. This program allows me to create many-layered works of art, with my line work on the uppermost layers and my textures and washes on many layers beneath. Any one piece often comprising as many as 200 different layers of line, wash and detail.

All of my studio work is sold as limited edition digital prints. A digital print is the physical representation of a file sent from a computer to a printer which then produces the design in accordance with the file information it received. My digital prints are the sole physical output for my digital collages, they are not copies of original artwork but the representation of the image that I have created on screen using a mix of my scanned elements and the process of collageing them together digitally. As a result, my prints are of high clarity and radiant colour truly representational of the original piece created using these techniques. I have my own fine art printer and produce all my prints myself to maintain the highest standards of quality.