It’s official now. I am a cheater. Haha! Well… not exactly.
My son, who was eager to learn about photography, took a trip to South America several months ago. He has a friend who was living on a boat in Chile, and they ended up sailing around and visiting Argentina and Uruguay. I’m pretty sure his friend moved his floating residence to Argentina while they were there, but don’t quote me.
Anyway, my son has been sending me some of the photographs that he took (on an iPhone, no less) and they are amazing! They don’t need editing at all, but I wanted to continue on my journey with experimental images so I’m going to use some of them (with his permission of course).
It feels a bit like cheating since I didn’t actually take the photos myself – but the fun here is in the editing, not the shooting (although I would love to have been there!).
I couldn’t do much to this particular image because it was so beautiful as-is, but I added an oil paint effect in Photoshop to smooth out the lines and make it a little less detailed. It looks like a sailors dream (in my own opinion).
Well… that’s about all for now. Nothing new to talk about, but I’ll be back soon with some more images of the open sea.
Until then… Peace & Love!
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
After scrapping another episode of barbershop tales… I did a little imagery tonight and came up with the word Muse for the letter “M.”
I’ve never really put much thought into the word, so I looked it up to see what the Internet had to say. Below are some of the definitions that I found:
As a noun, a muse is a person – especially a woman – who is a source of artistic inspiration. Another noun definition is “a person, or an imaginary being or force that gives someone ideas and helps them to write, paint, or make music.”
As a verb, to muse is to consider something thoughtfully or to become absorbed in thought. Another verb definition is “to have deep thoughts or to meditate.”
That’s a really cool word!
I wanted to try out some new techniques with imagery and I ended up with this colorful female. Honestly, it started out as a woman who was facing her shadow, but my inner child whispered in my ear… telling me that it looked as though she was touching her shadow’s hoo-hoo. (Sorry! It’s hard to unsee once you see it!)
So, I decided that it wasn’t a shadow at all – she was looking at her empty reflection in the mirror. That solved the hoo-hoo problem and gave me all sorts of things to think about.
It actually got me thinking about beauty, and how we see ourselves – and even others. I’ll tell you one thing… When I sit down to illustrate a woman, my intentions are always to make her look as beautiful as possible. Curvy. Slim. Nice lips. Bright eyes.
I’ll tell you something else. I may be my muse (on occasion) when I am writing – but when I illustrate a woman… I am never my muse. Unless it’s a self-portrait obviously.
It’s hard as you age! So, when I look in the mirror, or see myself in a Zoom class, I end up getting mad at society as if it’s society’s fault that I’m not happy with my appearance. I’m not photogenic to begin with, and now I’m older, heavier, grayer… and… (you get the drift).
I started to wonder… At what age does the acknowledgement of beauty, or the lack thereof, actually start? I mean, how do we know where the bar is when we’re a child? Is it instinctual or something learned? And why do we carry that bar with us our entire life?
To get myself off of that negative path I decided that I see these things because that is what I’m looking for or expecting. Like a big red pimple on the tip of your nose… the morning of Senior Photo day. It always happens like that! Probably because of the stress we put on our body when we worry all night about it happening!
Anyway, I could go on and on, but why be a downer?! I wanted to find a lesson in the muck of my thoughts, and the lesson I found was that I have to believe better. I need to look in that mirror and stop seeing the enemy.
I need to face that mirror, look into my muse’s eyes, and I need to tell her “my darling… you look wonderful tonight.”
The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
Audrey Hepburn
That’s about all for now.
Thank you so much for reading or viewing… I hope you enjoyed!
It’s based on a Bazaar magazine cover featuring Bella Hadid (original below). Not much was left to my imagination, but my focus right now is on shading and highlights – and I was really happy about her nose. Continue reading →
A Sprinkle of Faith 