The Human Canvas - Into The Woods

 

Into The Woods

(Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim)

 

But in this case,

it's the end of an evening with Lenore.

I had drawn three pieces on her, which I've published as "Serpentine Fire", "Harry Potter and the Order of the

Phoenix Feather", and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".

If you wanna go back and see THOSE individual

sessions, go back and hover over the name of

each one. I've embedded a link.

 

 

Back to the woods though.

THESE woods. An orange orchard, actually.

I've always loved this spot - day or night. It's now

special for me for other reasons...

 

 

But it's always presented great photo opps...

 

And I've always found

the trees to have QUITE an animated feel.

 

The idea had been forming

for quite some time to draw on someone,

and do some night photography.

 

And REALLY take

advantage of this backdrop I'd been presented

with SO many times before.

 

 

So...

Once again...

 

Meet Lenore.

 

After the third drawing,

It was a matter of going up to the orchard...

 

 

And sort of finding ourselves amongst the trees.

I actually had a very specific tree picked out,

but we ended up elsewhere.

 

 

But that's the great thing

about an orange orchard. There are SO many

trees with a VERY expressive sense.

 

 

 

This shawl was originally brought

for a bit of warmth, and a bit of protection for

the drawings, but it became

a great prop...

 

With tones that worked for color OR black and white.

 

And really, just a lot of nice photos.

 

 

But now...

Lose the wrap, and work once again on

blending in with the trees.

 

 

 

I mean REALLY blend in with the trees.

 

 

Oh yeah.

How about some shots

that actually show some of the drawing.

 

 

This was really

a great time to step away from the drawings,

 and just be photographer - playing with exposures...

 

 

...and effects.

 

We'll see you again soon.

The Human Canvas - Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Or in this case,

Barbed wire. We'll come back to that.

Meantime - let's welcome back Lenore.

 

She started with another name, used before

Then we started talking about that Raven

That Raven rapping, tapping, at my door

With many a reference... to that lost Lenore.

 

Okay.

That's how THAT came about.

So - back to this evening.

 

The first session

I did with Lenore got her stopped at airport security.

Okay. Maybe not REALLY, but it was rather innocent compared to what we got going this night.

 

 

 We had talked (a lot) about

costume ideas. I knew we were gonna be

going Goth, but the end result was a surprise

for me. I mean - really, a surprise. While I knew

about SOME things (corset, stockings, boots...) she

holed-up in front of a mirror behind closed doors, taking

care of makeup, jewelry, and colorful hair extensions!

 

These colors,

I think, influenced the colors for the serpent.

This was the first piece of the night.

 

After that, a Phoenix-feather.

Or, at least, a first stab at such a notion.

What I think we got though, was a feather with

flames coming off of it. This - as opposed to

a feather becoming fire.

 

Anyway... I'll be exploring this again.

 

I was recently

complaining to someone

about how difficult it is to draw roses.

While I was demonstrating the difficult aspects of it,

I realized instead how easy roses are to draw.

 

 

Easier than thinking

of something thoughtful to write on a birthday card.

 

 

I've been enjoying

drawing flowers, among other things,
during recent Human Canvas sessions.

Flowers, fish... anything serpentine... Or anything that allows me to play with blending of colors.

 

 

Even subtle blends - allowing

for just a change in tone, or depth.

This rose was to mimic, to a certain extent,

a tattoo that appears briefly during the opening

credits to Sons of Anarchy...

 

With barbed-wire taking the place of the stem.

 

 

So, zooming out then...

 

...And trying to work out

something that showed all three pieces

from this night.

 

And something kinda funny...

During the photo sessions that accompanied

the Human Canvas sessions, I noticed what I thought

was a reoccuring exploration of a kind of coy look...

...hand to mouth, a little bit open...

 

Turns out she was just

adjusting some of the afore-mentioned jewelry.

 

But really...
The drawings, the outfit and makeup...
This was all in preparation for some night-time
photography in a nearby
orange grove.
 

 

And THAT'S where
some REALLY cool stuff happened.

We'll be seeing that soon!

Sorry to have been away.