The Human Canvas - Lilies of the Valley

More like 

Lilies of the Canyon. 

Sunshine Canyon. Just above Boulder.

We'll get to some shots that are a bit closer, 

but first a bit of step by step.
The canvas. Amy.

At this point, 
it's a little hard to make it out. 
This session was one with a few attempts at 
some things that were nice discoveries in the past. 
One of which is the use of the "negative space" to provide 
the color for the flowers that will be showing up. The ink in 
a white Sharpie pen is more akin to paint than diluted dye, 
so if I want a white flower, it's simply a matter of drawing everything AROUND the flower, until the flower shows up. 
I know. I know. I could've done a light blue, or some 
other color, but I wanted to play with use of 
skin tone to provide color. 

The flowers will show up in just a bit. 
One of the other things I wanted to work on 
this evening was blending. Blending and smearing 
of two colors is not a new thing for me. Actually, it's one 
of my favorite things. Normally it's simply a matter of laying down just a touch of one color, then "pulling it out" and blending it with the stroke of another color.

This, as well as 
another type of blend I tend to use, 
was a little bit new, but explored to great effect 
on what became called "Drawing on Many Lessons." 
Check that one out HERE.

For whatever reason, 
I've found that greens do not blend as well 
as blues, reds, or some others. I don't know why. It just is. 
But if you keep working both (or all three) shades in... 
it can turn out quite nicely.

Hardly the focus of the drawing, 
but I REALLY like how the leaves turned out! 
So now -  it's time to get a shot next to some living plants.

Okay. 

Not so much the foliage 

for this shot as it is the muscle and shadows. 

Here's a better shot of the leaves drawn in to create 

the flowers. Or at least to make the color 

of the flowers appear.

Now a bit of stonework...

And then to add some bell flowers. 

These are only slightly similar to ACTUAL 

lilies of the valley. Similar only in that the shape, 
or type of variation of the flower is (loosely) the same. 
And the lilies I ended up drawing are more like Calla lilies. 
On the drive to Boulder, I was thinking about some sort of plant that could normally be found around those parts, 
making it more topical, I suppose... 

But I settled on Lilies. 
Lily is the name of Amy's daughter. 
Simple as that.

The negative space for the flowers used, 
as well as the blending with the leaves, it was time 
to head out into the woods to explore 
another success from the past. 

That is, the use of flash photography at night. 

You can get the subject lit, with the background blacked out. It's not as easy to get the shot ya want this way, but in the day of digital, it's easy enough to snap several shots 

to get the ONE you want. 

But I didn't want just one. 

Every time we ended up near another tree, 

it was another perfect shot. Amy has great muscle tone, 
and was happy to bend, twist, and stretch to give a slight variance on SO many shots that night.

Especially when we got a couple of old stone walls...

And then to an old shed. 

BEAUTIFUL colors to contrast with 

the canvas... 

In front of what was an ordinary wooden door.

And with the deer skull hanging above the doorway... 

Another photo-op SCREAMING to be used. 

Just many, 

many shots that were so nice this night. 

Some that are quite similar to one another, 

but each having it's own charm - with or without 

the other photos to accompany.

So many in fact, 

that there will HAVE to be 

a part two to this session. The next entry 
will be simply skipping the step by step stuff... 
just showing a lot more nice photos from a cool night. 
I did this once before with another, under similar circumstances. That is, too many cool photos to 
put in the original narrative, so I had to make a 
part two. That one also involved flash at night 
and was simply called "Into the Woods," 

which you can see that 
with a click HERE. 

Let's just give THIS entry time to see some visitors.

 But thanks for stopping by on this one. 

Almost 44,000 visitors to this site 

so far. Hopefully we'll see 

you again soon.

The Human Canvas - Dia Deux

At long last. We return.

This first photo is from a previous session

on a friend here at KVCR.

 

 

 I used

her name in the title,

calling it "Dia de la Moreno."

Funny,  because she IS a brunette... but anyway... 

You can link to that session with a click HERE.

A few days later, I was in Boulder, Colorado.

Whilst in the middle of

a game of Cards Against Humanity,

I noticed the availability of canvas next to me.

I don't remember if she even cared what went onto her.

I mean, she probably DID care, but trusted me

(to a certain extent) to not be

too foul or profane.

 

Sorry it's sideways.

I think most of us were sideways too.

 

So as I was thinking

about  the relatively few sugar skulls

I've drawn on people here and there, a woman

pointed out her bracelet - a rather STUNNING

Day of the Dead inspired piece.

 

 

It inspired ME...

to get out one of my new metallic pens.

Still working out the bugs on these things,

but THIS session turned out well. Amongst the

favorites (if not THE favorite) of a friend

and recovering canvas, Tracy.

 

I liked it a lot as well.

Fairly basic and simple, really.

And the silver was not always a COLOR, per se,

but sometimes only an accent.

 

 

Then adding these lines,

and connecting them, we ended with

a sort of piece of jewelry. A bit of a scarab perhaps?

My goddaughter had just painted up her own arm

with something similar. Really love her work. I've

posted some here and there on these pages.

Check out at least one of those

groupings with a click

HERE.

 

Back to this one.

Done with the drawing,

and having made her twist her arm

so her skirt would serve as a backdrop...

 

 

We found that

putting her amongst the quartz

was quite nice, and I'm sure more comfortable.

 

Only one more session

left from the Boulder trip, and it's a doozy!

I'm getting impatient to get caught back up,

so we'll be seeing that soon.

 

Enjoy your dia.