Sketching and New Artist Emerging

I found a sketch of a mask in a magazine that intrigued me. I decided to sketch my version of it in my journal last week while waiting for the little one's dance class to end. I took the sketch to work, enhanced the sketch a little more with the pencil and scanned it in so that I could play with it in photoshop. I added some light layering to the image (I love that the scanner picked up some of the writing on the other side of the drawing). Here is the completed sketch that I now consider an artwork that I want to incorporate as a logo on the blog (tell me what you think of the sketch):


In addition to the above sketch, this past Thursday while I was at work assisting an artist on some sketches, I decided to re-sketch the mask again. I applied the second version on a piece of canvas, and colored it in with earth tones in acrylic. I am still working on it as I write this, but when I get that piece completed, I will scan it in and upload for your critique as well!

I have an announcement (do you hear the trumpets sounding....)!

Today, I assisted a fellow artist in starting their own photography/art blog (cheers, clapping....hooray!). We are hoping that within a week or so, we will have the blog ready to roll. I am asking those who currently follow my blog to please stay tuned......I would like each and every one of you to click onto the blog when it is ready.... please take a moment to read, make comments and follow if you like!

I will add more details and a link when we have everything in place! Thanks so much for all that have dared to follow me so far, and for all the nice, appreciated comments left on this blog!

Have happy dreams and a wonderful evening!

Scanning negatives

In my last post I had talked about scanning in some positive negatives that I had found from my last photography class involving the process of Cyanotype photographs.

I had scanned in the "positive and negative" enlarged negatives of an image from my graveyard series. This image still gives me the chills of that day that I visited one of the oldest catholic cemetery's within our city.

The day was a bit chilly that morning, but proceeded to warm up a bit as I walked around the front area of this large cemetery. I happened upon a police car and was thoroughly warned about the dangers of being alone within that part of the city, especially with my equipment. I assured the police officer that I would be fine and would keep close to my car at all times. Little did I know that I would be encountering something that was not of this world. I started out shooting images of the various wonderful statues and intriguing monuments of those who had passed on from this life dating back as far as the 1800's.

The image that appears on this page ended up in my portfolio due to the size of the pillar. The angel is hard to see after all the scanning and mess that I had made of the positive/negative, but the barren trees make up for it by adding a little creepiness, which had become my signature.

To finish my story...I had come upon the indoor mausoleum and decided to go inside and take a look. I got some interesting shots on the first floor due to the natural lighting through the stained glass windows. As I went to the second floor, I came upon this little circular area with a few benches and in the ceiling was this beautiful, carved setting that mere words could not describe. As I set up for the shot, had my camera on the tripod and all of my equipment hanging on me, I proceeded to push the button on my camera.

What happened next is really hard to describe, but the sound I heard was not of this earth, and I could not see anything through my lens. The only thing I could do at that moment, was to grab my tripod and high tail it out of there. When I burst through the back doors to the outside, my ears stopped ringing and it was hard to catch my breath, needless to say, I was quite frightened and visibly shaking from what I had experienced inside that mausoleum. Out of nowhere, this man appears near the doors that I had just come out of, he looked at me, but did not say anything. So, I asked him to go inside and see if there was anyone inside the place for me. He returned a few minutes later, shook his head and disappeared around the corner.

I went to the front office and ended up telling the whole story to the men that were working that day and they had a good chuckle at me, but it shook me up. Something was trying to tell me to stay out of there and give them their peace!

I did stay at the cemetery for the remainder of the day and found where my great-uncle had been buried and found some others interesting gravesites as well. There is a story as to how my great-uncle had died, but it is quite a story and involves the mob, but that is for another day.

Have a great evening!

P.S. The title of the image is "Within my darkest hour, I shall cry out to you".