chrisvest

gorgeous pic-- a complex and wonderful natural etching. i love visually wandering in the labyrinth: from the foregrounds simplicity-- the galaxy of the filigreed middle --and then to the impressionistic background. lovely sweeping upward effect with touches of warming rufous color in the middle.

yes it does! classic old 2002 bulging it's gritty way into our affections. i love the angle, the bricks above, cobble below, and the overall dank, chilly feel toasted by the radiant model. bravo.

good central focus to rivet interest, with a subtle glow moving concentrically outward. handsome model-- although perhaps not his/her most playful expression-- more of a: "i just got up, can you keep your voices down?"

hi gail

 

wow, lovely having you to my pages! thanks for all the comments and encouragement: it means a lot to me. cheers and best wishes!

wow! great light! and bravo for capturing a vivid and palpable moment as the bird tastes that well-earned and tasty prize!

goodness. this is no place to be a mouse. beautiful pic.

a clever and inspiring piece. of course it's brilliantly rendered, richly colored and textured, but it has also a keen and timely message i believe: the human incarnation of the poppys is clearly livid (as expressed by the hands) at the blemish on her landscape. she's GOING to take some action, one must wonder what that may be.....

what an amazing bird-- always a joy to see. this is a magnificent study of flight and the extraordinary beauty of the wing feathers!

lovely creative treatment. i love the textures-- and the apparently excited and cajoling branch.

thanks guys. of course this image is a re-work of:

 

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=9550335

 

i thought the simplified look would be better. the good thing about digital painting is that we can always go back and re-work the art.

thank you birte! denis, it's called "painted photo montage" -- a series of photos that i take, combine, and then digitally paint over the top. check out my portfolio, you'll get the idea. cheers.

nice pic-- it's an eastern phoebe, aye? excellent division between soft background suggestive of impressionistic color and movement-- and a rich, detail-filled foreground.

moving pic. the lines of modern architecture radiating outward from the seemingly ageless visage are in striking contrast. i'm thinking that the image could be less saturated -- almost a sepia toned effect. the metaphor could be that the sad face of a gentle humanitarian is apparently unknown to most people-- like the homeless-- streaked and spat upon, egged... you could even flip the image 90 degrees to suggest him lying on the ground. cool.

great capture: alluring in expression and tactile in detail. the deliberate effort to chill the colors mixes wonderfully with the palpable wit and warmth of the model. knowing and strong, sexy and sad. a very artful portrait.

i've seen lots of shrikes but i confess i've never seen them skewer prey (as every bird

book says they do)-- so this is just a modestly macabre visual equivalent of the "non

fiction novel".

great drama and fascinating feather study-- i assume this is a defensive plumage-puffing display. lucky you to come across this spectacle! well captured.

outstanding capture and treatment. a novel way to depict aviation art.

i just have to chime in with the others: a very creative and successful piece. it's such a clever idea that it could be expanded: next time bring your friends and do a portrait series with various people and scratches on adjacent windows. in soft colors would be interesting as well. bravo.

hi guys, thanks for the comments. the image "sampled" is andrew wyeth's christina's world: mostly the edifice on the hill; i added it as a background element to this many layered work.

 

as always, my compositions are made of MANY images (i label each of my pictures "painted photo montage")-- the point being that i don't want anyone to confuse my images with conventional photography-- the last thing i want is for anyone to wonder whether the picture is "fake"... i want it to be immediately obvious that the image is indeed contrived. of COURSE it is "fake"!! -- that is, it's not a mechanical recording of nature's artistry, but a creation driven by my imagination.

 

the original horse and mule photo was, to my eye, boring, but i picked out the elements that had potential and combined them with other digitally painted and photographic components. there are plenty of practitioners of photo-manipulation out there, but the part of the artistic evolution (or movement if you prefer) that i want to participate in is the one that is attempting to bridge painting and photography.

 

thanks again for your thoughts amigos.

i "sampled" a famous piece of art to blend into this image. can you spot it?

cool. very gritty and balanced. expresses a great loneliness in spite of the warm tones. one can almost hear the pipes creak and the echoing of subterranean metal doors banging.

great capture. the lines of the background, the gaze of the model and the branches all coalesce into a gorgeous geometry of upward diagonals. a great subject: handsome, intense, with feathers slightly puffed out in stoic resistance to the cold. nice one kim!

rich, vivid and slightly surreal, (she must be standing on a stool), with alabaster highlights and rembrandt umbers. fine in every detail.

excellent piece, well crafted. the radiant orbs behind the subject could be either the all seeing eyes of the universal consciousness-- or grinding tank treads, rolling like a juggernaut over everything. disturbing and evocative like a great protest statement. bravo.

good pic, excellent choice to drain the colors and to shoot at night; it looks at once sadly petrified, frozen in time, and yet so ready to launch skyward one more time.