Flight of the Phoenix

I designed this image for the web: hot colors, simple forms, and a

little sex.

Hello Thomas:

Don't know how I missed this when you posted it, but I'm glad I found it now. I tried my first phoenix back in 1968 as a student when the publisher of a new weekly paper in Boston asked me to try my hand at a logo. It didn't work then, and I've never come up with anything approaching this on several other occasions over the years. Your concept is absolutely stunning.

As a piece of eye-catching art for a Web site, especially, it succeeds brilliantly. As a photo illustration, digital art, or whatever it is that people call what we do, I wonder if perhaps the color contrast between the red-orange-yellow sandstone and the green-bronze Phoenix isn't too distracting.

What happens, I think, is that the color contrast leaves the Phoenix looking as she were cut and pasted, rather than an integral part of the scene.

I took the liberty of doing a 5-minute makeover. Cropping a little closer to the PN ideal of about a 6:5 ratio, destaturating and colorizing -- perhaps not the best hue and intensity, just something that seemed to work with the textures.

Obviously, these suggestions are for you to take or leave. But I would be fascinated to see how people on PN respond to a more "photographic" version of "Phoenix."

Thanks for your comments on my digital fantasies. They are much appreciated.

Best,

Jim

Thanks for your comments. This image has been a struggle of imperfections, not the least of which is the color. It was the color of the sandstone that inspired the phoenix idea, but the color is so garish that when I framed it and hung it, I had to separate it from my other photographs. Believe it or not, Ive already desaturated the colors in the image I posted. The colors have been described to me as beingGeorgia OKeeffish to obscene.

Ive posted a few of the alternates that Ive done recently. Theyre in my Imaginings folder. Of the alternates posted on the site, my new favorite is #2, which is very close to your modification. I dont know if Ill rename it or not, but its lost a bit of the fire that made it a phoenix. Theres no question that as you bring the colors of the sandstone and the woman closer together, you diminish the pasted in look. On the other hand, Im not fooling anyone into thinking this image actually existed, so maybe a little pastiness is acceptable.

I think the way in which you view the woman will color your perception. If you take flight literally and imagine she is in a flying position, it comes off as pretty stupid looking. If you imagine the woman is standing vertically with her arms stretched upwards (which is the way I originally envisioned it) it looks fine. The rock gives no clues, and I think I eventually have to revise this so I can eliminate the stupid looking flying viewpoint.

Version 3 shows the woman as she originally existed. I like the tonality of this image, but it reminds me of too much of Bernadette at Lourdes.