pixels, light and hot wax

I just sent a few pieces, with “befores”, off to Tracy Cornett, for her Fantasy Photography panel at Dragon. (Tracy rocks) I’ve been meaning to do proper before and afters/tutorials on the site for a while, but until I have time to do it properly, here is a little taste:

Summoning Luna (finished):

Summoning Luna (main source):

This is the first really complex composite I’d ever done, pretty much simultaneously with Throne of Fey and Planet Eater, and while there are certainly things I would do differently now, I’m still pretty pleased with it, especially as it is the first complex digital piece I’ve finished that started with a sketch, rather than looking through a shoot and going “Hmmm, I bet I could do something with that….” There were three different photographs combined with digital painting and the most persnickety layer masks ever. (I’m pretty sure this piece took in the neighborhood of 60 hours to finish.)

Poseidon’s Bouncer (finished):



Poseidon’s Bouncer (two main sources, out of 4 photographs)

Images like this are why I need to get myself to shoot more landscapes, even though I don’t particularly enjoy them. (Of course, that’s also why I started learning Vue, so I’m not limited to the landscapes I’ve shot.) I do have a plentiful supply of photos of fish bits, however (which also explains much of the Space Whimsy series; I just can’t resist flowers and sealife.

Model: Taylor (Heffner)

I am rather ill, which means the only way to not feel completely retched is to stay close to completely still. The only good thing about this is that, while I can’t do any of the work I was planning to do with this time, I can sit at the computer, so I got started on a piece I doodled the plan for just last night. This is probably not *done*, but it’s a good bit of the way there:

Cosmic Cat at Play
(unfinished, work in progress, photomontage)

I tivoed a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy (Rivers and Tides). I remember studying him back in my art history days, and not being particularly struck (other than by how much patience he must have) but now I find the work extremely compelling. As artmaking, his work is just so … pure? I don’t know the right word, but I think I could watch this repeatedly; it is compelling, earthy yet serene, and brings me back to thinking about essentials of artmaking and even essentials of life — he works with the big concepts, life, light, time, but without being at all presumptuous or overbearing. I want to say it’s very Zen, but somehow that’s too pat, not full enough.

I need to keep paying attention to this kind of work; it is so easy as I am starting out and still looking for a definitive style and some sort of success to get smaller and smaller in the focus of the work and lose the perspective of why I gave into art in the first place.

Just shot this about 2 hours ago, and I had to post it before I even finish editing the shoot:

This is the glorious Mickey. Go buy a beer from her at the Vogue, and remember to tip well

…for not being more prolific:

My darling little monsters, 6 August 2006

And this is why my five year plan contains no hint of even thinking about art full-time until 4 years from now.

I was going to keep this under my hat until Worldcon, but I’m just too excited.
There is something so enlivening about a shiny new medium! Hence, this little bauble.

Summer’s Exile, 2006

5×5 limited edition print.

It’s done 95% in Vue (and a little bit in Photoshop)

Art has been taking a bit of a backseat to the business of art, and the business of living. My oldest daughter just started pre-school, wedding season has hit big-time (meaning more hours at the dayjob), and preparing for WorldCon is driving me nuts. Amidst all this, I finished two new pieces (debuting at WorldCon), started two more encaustics riffing off the original material that inspired Happy Pill, did one shoot, and scheduled three others in the next two weeks (mostly headshots, but one is a high-fashion style model portfolio shoot, which will probably provide some material for subverting into sf; that’s what Dreaming of Home came from, when Anna and I were trying to channel Alexander McQueen with tin foil and saran wrap.) Since almost all my art time, whether it be shooting, photoshopping, or painting, comes on Saturday afternoons, let’s just say the schedule is really way too packed.

Dreaming of Home, 2005

And I’ve also figured out that the new web design for Jeliza.net is broken, so that must be fixed to something easier to navigate. Preferably before the hundreds of fen (and art directors!) who will might up my business card at Worldcon get there. And I’m terribly afraid this means finally learning CSS.