Series Overview / Methodology

This series was born from COVID boredom and a lack of access to my traditional materials and created using a Cannon MG5721 all-in-one printer/scanner to scan images of a 2-litre plastic bag filled with various levels of water, different colours of food dye, small amounts of flour, and in some cases baby oil. The texture within the images was achieved by squishing and rolling the bag on the scanner’s bed during the scanning process.

Scans 1-3 (Black & White)

My printer would not scan in colour; I was still figuring out how to make my idea work.

Scan 1

Scan 2

Scan 3

Scan 4 (Purple/Pink)

After several failed attempts resulting in a black-and-white image, I successfully scanned in colour. I am still unsure what error prevented me from capturing colour images; however, after several computer restarts, it worked.

Scan 4

Scan 5-6 (Purple/Pink)

Red and blue food dye, flour and water.

This was my first group of successful scans; I was starting to explore my idea and had successfully scanned images in colour. I wasn’t a huge fan of the colour I created, so I moved on quickly.

Scan 5

Scan 6

Scans 7-11 (Neon Green)

Yellow and neon green food dye, flour, and water.

I experimented with large amounts of movement in my second group of scans. In scans 10 and 11, I added flour mixed with food dye and baby oil to see how adding particulate would affect the image.

Scan 7

Scan 8

Scan 9

Scan 10

Scan 11

Scans 12-19 (Orange/Peach/Red)

Red and yellow food dye, flour, and water.

In my third group of scans, I focused on creating interesting shapes and textures with the bag by squeezing and pressing it onto the scanner's surface.

Scan 12

Scan 13

Scan 14

Scan 15

Scan 16

Scan 17

Scan 18

Scan 19

Scans 20-26 (Blue)

Blue food dye, flour, water, and baby oil.

In my fourth group of scans, I primarily built on the ideas I explored in previous scans. I believe this is the most successful group created during this process.

Scan 20

Scan 21

Scan 22

Scan 23

Scan 24

Scan 25

Scan 26

Scans 27-33 (Black & White / Clear)

Water, flour, and baby oil.

In my last group of scans, I wanted to return to the black-and-white images I created in the first scans. After testing the greyscale and black-and-white scan functions, I was unsatisfied with the outcome, precisely, the images' lack of contrast and texture. This sparked the idea of performing the scans without adding food dye to my mixture. Instead, I added more baby oil to create a textural contrast within the bag since the flour does not mix with the oil like the water.

Scan 27

Scan 28

Scan 29

Scan 30

Scan 31

Scan 32

Scan 33

Final Thoughts

This project was my first attempt at using a flatbed scanner as a camera, and I had low expectations of the output. However, the level of detail, and how it captured colour exceeded my expectations. Through this process, I plan to create more images and encourage anyone interested to explore this concept in their creative practice or time.