I played around more with the crashing water images but couldn't get the effects I was going for, so I ended up omitting them. I spent way too much time trying to get realistic shadows on the sand for the cigarettes and gull, but I kept messing up my whole piece, and they kept coming out orange. So, there are still things I'm not understanding. The only shadow I was able to get was for the figure. (This isn't me, btw. Since we have never seen each other in person, I just thought I'd mention that. My husband asked if it was Bo Derek. I don't think he had his glasses on, as it's definitely not her, either!)
I like the crispness and clean colors of the images you used.
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough for the Bo Derek reference! Probably just by a hair. I think you've come a long way with this image, Jane. Sometimes the more we try to force our materials to behave in the way that we want, the more they push back and reveal their own agency and intrigue. (I think I've mentioned a quote to this effect by the digital artist Paul Pfeiffer, that craft is a process of discovering what your material will do, despite your will, that may end up being more interesting than what you were attempting.) Though on the surface there are some problems with perspective in regards to scale and color, I find these idiosyncrasies visually interesting, perhaps more so than I would a photo-representational image. The giant bag of chips is overbearing; the sea detritus is mountainous; the figure is minute and ineffectual against the more pervasive elements—in each instance the viewer is reading a clear conceptual intention. The lack of grounding for the cigarettes is a bit distracting, however, and the flight of the gull perhaps a bit too well framed within the top-quarter compositional strip of sky. These two elements at opposite points within the composition might feel a bit too contained. The simplest edit, for instance, of slightly dropping the gull to break the plain of the horizon might set it more satisfyingly into the foreground. I know that this image was at times a slog to complete, but it seems that you got a lot of strong experience from tweaking it as you have.
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