My primary technique can be thought of as a highly controlled and sophisticated form of (electronic) finger painting coupled with a variation on a surrealist parlor game. I start by digitizing several unrelated images with a video camera, focusing on the colors of the image, not the recognizable content. I then take these images (inside the computer) and randomly cut and paste them (in much the same way as one would blindly make random slices through several pages in a magazine, mix them up, and casually glue them to a canvas or white sheet of paper.) Before pasting to the screen, I draw some basic compositional armature (most of this deals with classical harmonic structures, directional lines of force, or illustrations of chaos systems.) This results in random colors and parts of partially recognizable forms aligned in some "pseudo" structural pattern.
If this were an actual magazine cut up I would be finished. The beauty of the computer is that you can now treat this base image as if it were wet oil paint. With the Photoshop "smudge" tool, the computer pen takes on the same characteristics as a finger running through wet oil paint. You can push and pull one color into another, model in light and dark and build up volume by mixing and blending in very subtle ways. New (outside) colors can be combined and applied when needed, same as in conventional painting.
The principle behind my compositional technique is one of forced random visual stimulation, structured in some way along predefined lines (such as color, directional lines of force, symmetry, etc.) In much the same way as one would see faces, fantastic forms or landscapes in clouds, ink blots or wood grains, I use this fore mentioned cut up technique, in combination with the "smudge" tool and underlying compositional lines, to force recognizable visual components out of what at first glance appear to be useless chaotic markings.
So, in conclusion, the combining of a basic knowledge of drawing, painting and composition along with the "smudge" tool and randomizing system enable me to produce highly realistic and at the same time very stylized imagery.
