painting the queen

this is the third [and final] of my portaits based on characters from alice’s adventures in wonderland.

i give you, The Royal Portrait…

this portrait was inspired completely by the work of alexa meade, whose work i discovered recently [and shared on my other blog here.]

im struggling to decide how successful this has been.. when you work so long on trying to create an illusion, it is difficult to see it with fresh eyes. does the illusion work?? 

when i tell you that this painting is a photgraph of a live model [my lovely friend, courtney brady], who has been painted – are you surprised? did you immediately spot the trick, did you know something wasn’t quite right, or did the illusion work? please comment – if only to let me know! lol.

my suspicion [or hope] is that you thought something was odd, but didn’t immediately clock what astray.  the eyes are certainly a give away with such a close headshot – but i think the hair betrays this more than anything else. i had intended to paint the background more, inorder to break up the outline, but what with changing light, messing with the tripod, and still getting to grips with the camera – it just went right out of my head.

next time – and i really do want to try this again – i wont forget to do that. with these illusions, it is all about getting the finishing touches just right. 

so that’s all of my alice portraits. i had so many more ideas than i possibly had time to do. these three photographs were for a university project that is now handed in, so it’d be hard to feel motivated to add to this collection. but then, there are so many other themes and character re-interpretations that hold such potential that i feel it’d be criminal not carry on working on this illusion through the lens idea in some capactity.  watch this space :]

actually, i’d been wanting to learn more about photography for ages, but never made the time or had enough motivation. so working on this project over the last few weeks has been a fantastic learning experience,  giving me my first ever decent interaction with an SLR [nikon D80]. sadly the camera is not mine, but i dont see how i can possibly go back to using a compact after this! reflecting, the scary thing is that every good photo i took only made me realise just how much i have to learn about photography. this is very much fledgling territory.

anyway, i reckon that’s me hooked on photography now – this is easily going to be the most expensive hobby i have ever had in my life!

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“who are you?”

this is the next one of my character portraits from alice…

 

the least successful aspect of this photo?   if you didnt know this image was part of an alice-theme, you probably wouldn’t make that connection yourself – and therefore not even identify the character. certainly, all the scene elements are there… the caterpillar, smoking [although not a hookah], the mushroom, and the phone does add a referece regarding scale – as alice is tiny at this point in the tale!  ah if only i’d been able to find a blue caterpillar in the garden!

about the mushroom: in the story, the bug is sat atop the mushroom – the way ive set this up was an attempt to incorporate a juxtaposition between nature and the modern digital world.  if i was being arty, i would explain this as commentary on the way we change and modify the world with technology. i may also go on to suggest that the ciggie butts represtent the disrespectful attitude we have towards nature too. but lets not go there, eh?  those kinda artists are so annoying

i have been looking at magritte’s paintings quite a bit lately, so the whole ‘c’est nes pas un shroom’-thing kinda drifted into my head too. AND if there is a mushroom that the modern world has an affinity for, it is that one!  …and cos the caterpillar is on top of it, you could say, there’s one person up there. one up  …1up  😉 

disclaimer: no bugs were harmed during this shoot. ive never worked with insects before [probably cos i hate the critters], but this fella was quite a good model. he didnt go wandering too far off his mark, and the only time i questioned his professionalism towards his work was when he took a poo on my phone!

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a cat from cheshire

i have just completed a university project, the title of which was ‘illusion through the lens’.  i was tasked with creating a series of images using camera trickery alone… after some experimenting and development i settled on producing a series of portraits of characters from carroll’s ‘alice’s adventure in wonderland’.

i ended up creating three photographs, using a different approach with each shoot in order to bring a new dimension to the subject matter. this is the first…

light graffiti felt like such a perfect medium for a cat who is barely there..  there’s a real empathy when you consider the transcience of the subject matter and it’s construction.

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