Screw Forest

This was a photographic composite project I started years ago, but didn’t ever finish. Therefore, I decided to finish this for my Honors Contract project for my Studio Art & Technology class. I imagined this surreal scene of a forest made entirely up of screws instead of trees (in a dream, actually). And in the middle of this screw forest, there was one lonely girl in the middle of it all just looking up and marveling at this fantastical screw forest. I started by collecting all of the stock photos I was going to use to create this work. Screws of various sizes and shapes, the dirt for the ground, the stormy sky, and the model (which was already pre-selected). I set up the dirt and the sky how I wanted it and envisioned it, then I placed the model roughly where I wanted her, imagined her in the scene. I then individually selected all of the screws and placed them roughly where I wanted them in the scene.

Eventually I realized I needed to create a “screw forest background” to really create the depth that this is an all-encompassing forest. So I created that background utilizing some of the same screws I’d already been using, then I applied some gaussian blur and some black gradients, so that they fade and blend into the background, showcasing the depth of the forest. Once everything was pretty much placed where I wanted it, where I envisioned it, I added shadows to show how the screws emerged from the ground and to give them that sense of realism. I also knew I wanted that blue tinge to the final image to make the scene feel that much more cold and dark and lonely. I also knew I wanted it to be fairly dark but still able to see what’s in the image, since this screw forest is so massive, extensive, and far-reaching. I also applied a scratch texture to make everything feel a little bit distressed.