From the Treasure Trove

"Lamentation"
Martha Graham
A photograph today. Look at the emotion in every part of her gesture.
I've determine that in my next life, I will be a dancer.
One of my favorite quotes is by her.

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open".

Portrait Update

I'm finishing the hair and did more on the face and clothing. The client agrees that we need to lighten the far side of her face, since it's too dark in the photo. I'm realizing the 'value' of a value guide, especially with the whites of the clothing. A value guide is a white credit card sized card with a hole punched out of the middle of it. Mine is laminated but it doesn't have to be. You place it over an area of the photo reference and see the value of the color in the hole and then do the same on the corresponding spot of your drawing. For me, it usually needs to be darkened, especially on the lighter value areas of the photo. My brain tells me, the clothing is white with yellow-green accents. No where does the photo match the white of the value card. The earring will probably be the lightest area of the whole portrait. The brain is constantly at odds with what the EYE actually sees and what the brain THINKS it sees.

**Thank you for all your suggestions on the previous post. I haven't had time to explore other options, but I appreciate the honest opinions of my family members and blog posters.

Master Class Assignment - Photo References

Here are just a few of the photo references I took for the two ideas. I then perused the internet for photos of tree roots, bark, vines, moons, ruins, etc. Anything that would help to form my mental vision on paper.

Gaping Maws

Artists are always looking for great reference material to help them visualize the mental images one's imagination conceives for an illustration. For many of them, you can simply find willing (or reluctant) victims, dress them up, set up your lighting, and snap away with your camera. But there are some pictures that require a unique perspective and/or unnatural posing, such as flying faeries. After some googling, I discovered a blog where someone had posted supposedly sane teenagers in France, of all places, who free fall from considerable heights on to the concrete. And of course, someone records their flight.....well, fall is a more appropriate word, with a camera. Thankfully, this blogger stopped short of displaying the final splat, and the images happened to be perfect for what I needed for the faeries. Further searching produced a site of a person who liked to photograph pretty women under water. Even better. Now, say you need help illustrating two dragon's battling in mid-air. Photos of two dueling eagles helped me visualize the placement of the wings and such, but what about the fire-breathing mouths. Well, looky what I found: Gaping Maws! Yes siree, this has just about every animal possible with their mouths gaping wide. And it's even been recently updated. I'm sure I will find something here to my liking. I thought I would share this find with all of you. Enjoy. I know I will.