flower – Page 2 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

An Orchid and Its History

I took this photo back in 2011. I had bought my first DSLR, a Nikon 7000, after using a friend’s D70 for over a year. Back then I was not only learning to take pictures, managing ISO, exposure, aperture, etc., but also learning editing software. Lightroom was at version 3 I think, not the CC or Classic of today. Since then I have played with a number of different post editing programs, but in reality don’t use any of them to the maximum potential. Do I want to?

Certainly I am better at editing than I was 12 years ago. Then HDR was sort of “the thing” and I pushed things a lot, and often with rather dreadful results. Before having my cataracts removed, I also starting pushing colors as my vision declined. Now I still look at color as a very important part of photography, but of late I am looking more at contrast, complementary colors, and the sorts of things you look at in painting.

Pictures are still what I look at more than anything, whether photos, paintings, drawings, or just the world around me. The visual is always what intrigues me. Some people are sensitive to sound or scent or taste, and I wish I had the ability to experience them as deeply as I do the visual. I wonder what synesthesia would be like – does it enhance or confuse?

Anyway, back to editing. Below is the above orchid edited in 2011 in black and white.

And below is a new BW edit of the same . . .

Interesting how times and experience change us . . .

On the Forest Floor

One of the things about following a track in the woods regularly, you see things that you don’t see another time. Where we were staying near Spokane, our daily walks took us out along the same track, under the pines, alongside the river. While the season didn’t change much in the few days we were there, what I saw became more specific, like this flower against the fallen tree. Different times of day, too, presented the light in different ways as it shone through the trees. This familiarity is one of the delights to be had with the familiar.

White Rose

More going back through the photographic archives!

This morning I came across some images from 4/2011 when I was using a friend’s Nikon D70. I think this may be a Pope John Paul II white rose in my front garden. I took a number of images with an exposure long enough to let me blur the image, but short enough not to make a mess. There are about 10 that I did, some which are rather nice, I think. I like this one because of its softness, but also as I was looking at them, I was also thinking they could make for some rather interesting paintings.

The Lily

I was wandering through archived photos that I took years ago when a friend loaned me his old digital camera for over a year. Sometimes I think what I have done in the past is better than the present – or is it old age nostalgia?

17-20 / 30

Somewhere, a corner turned. It is becoming easier to simplify a picture, throw out unnecessary things and perhaps adding something else to make it more interesting or work more than a photo can.

I’ve been wanting to draw a cloudburst and finally did. After looking at lot of pictures, I realized that the drama comes from the soft rain blurring what is behind it. However, there is also contrast – light and dark. To achieve this, I drew everything in with graphite and then used a grey rubber eraser to create the streaks, lifting the graphite. From there, I smudged it in. Values remain but the messy nature of graphite sometimes defeats itself for value studies!

I am pretty pleased with this study. There are nice, subtle areas in a photo that was basically very high contrast in the tree and vegetation in the foreground. The ocean is in the middle right and extending into a misty sky.

I took a picture of a tulip years ago – pale pink and backlit. The blurry quality of my drawing is just a value study, not a drawing to show what a tulip looks like. This idea is really challenging at times because I have done portraits in pencil and details abound then! It is important to remember this is to be a simple reference, not a finished work of art.

As I progress in this 30 day challenge, I find I am running out of subject matter! So, it is time to work with other things. The flower was one. This one is perspective.

I actually got out a ruler and for the sketch created a grid, and then worked hard to put things in both perspective and in proportion to each other. As well, I wanted to create a nocturne.

Commentary

So, the days are rolling by, little shifts are occurring, and as my confidence in value studies grows, so is, it seems, my patience for doing preliminary work before trying to execute a painting. Not easy for me at all!d