A Dogswood

I'm in the (slow) process of making an "official" website for myself with SmugMug. I decided to put the coding on hold for the moment in order to get some content up on the site to work with, which means I've been going through a lot of photos, particularly the batch from up north taken last fall. There are a ton of forgotten treasures in the batch, so I may start posting a few here to whet your appetite, as it were, for the launch of my site!

Ideas Reborn: Mythic Strides

Last winter I went through a major "itch" to be more serious about my painting. Since college I really haven't done any, mostly because it's hard to find the right kind of space here at home to allow for 1) undisturbed open storage and 2) ventilation for paint and turp fumes (as I prefer to work with oil). I started a large pastel piece last fall but beyond my initial sketch my ideas aren't meshing well and I've been too stuck on it to proceed. On that front I probably just need to grit my teeth and dive in, but that's perhaps a discussion for another day.

I found my shoe box of horseshoes and started thinking about them. Because of their size, they are fairly easy to work on in a limited space setting. I wouldn't need an easel or much else besides room for my paintbrushes, paint tubes, a small palette, and the shoe itself.

I also wanted to continue my previous artistic trend of working with mythology. I love mythology--anything other than Greek mythology, to be more specific, only because I feel it's a tad over done and I never much identified with the culture to begin with. Norse mythology is my absolute favorite, as is anything to do with Norse (and Scandinavian more generally) folk lore. When I was young Norse myths were my usual bedtime stories.

Some way or another the idea struck me. Horseshoes are very important artifacts in many cultures' folk lore--they bring in good luck, protect homes and doorways, prevent the mal-influence of faeries or gremlins (or creatures of a hundred different names). As a horse-owner I'm always fascinated by the worn shoes of my horse. I like the character of them, the story they tell of the horse who wore them, the worn toes from pawing concrete aisles, the dents and twists from throwing shoes off in the pasture or during a ride, the natural grinding of the nail grooves of the metal...I always found there was an energy to them. No wonder the cultural mythologies of so many groups of people assigned spiritual significance and power to them. It occurred to me that I could combine those ideas--mythology and the folk lore of horseshoes.

And so my series, "Mythic Strides," was born.

I immediately churned out two sketches. I decided that I wanted to represent Norse deities or specific moments of Norse myths (and eventually other mythologies as well) through abstract representation. Given the small workable surface area of a real horseshoe, abstract designs would be key. Nothing too fancy. Nothing too detailed or scenic.



My first sketch was for a shoe devoted to Thor, called "Thor's Stride". Keeping to the simplistic, abstract and representational depiction, I chose to use a knot version of Mjolnir (Thor's mightly hammer) at the center of the shoe's toe. At the left heel of the shoe I decided to place the rune þurs, on the right would most likely be the rune algiz/eohls. The background would be a the marble of thunderclouds--plums and navies and grays, stricken with lightning bolts.

Thor himself was not only a fierce warrior in Norse mythology, associated with strength, lightning, thunder, and storms in general, but was also widely accepted as the protector of mankind. It felt only right that I paint a horseshoe for him.



My second sketch, titled "Stride Between Moon and Sun" features the chase of Sol and Mani by the wolves Skoll and Hati. It is by far my favorite idea for the series so far. As well as a shoe that will likely prove to be most complex to paint the way I intend. I hope to do a progression of sky for the background, though that will largely depend on how I depict the moon and sun through paint. At the center of the toe lies the rune dagaz/daeg, the rune of day as well as personal breakthrough and transformation.

As of yet, I haven't painted either shoe, but I am well on my way. I decided that I wanted to paint a "practice shoe" with acrylic first, just to see if I would find it more suitable for painting on the shoes. Especially because some of the designs in my moleskine are particularly suited to the strengths of acrylic.

I also fully intend to make shoes of this series available for sale, though I might make "Stride Between Moon and Sun" for myself. I really want to explore the connection of personal and cultural mythology and merge it with the folkloric significantly of horse shoes as spiritual objects. After a few I might even target horses in various mythologies first for horseshoe-paintings. We'll see. There are plenty of possibilities with this series, and I'm more than excited to dive into them.


Coming soon...Muse's Web: Practice Shoes & New Directions

Horseshoes and Dreamcatchers: The Beginning

I've been wanting to post about this stuff for a while, but things have been crazy busy lately and I just haven't gotten around to it! So, rather than put everything in one post, I thought I'd "do it properly" and post about the projects from the beginning.

Back in my college Intermediate Painting class (I don't even want to think about how long ago that was!) our Prof gave us the assignment to chose alternative surfaces to work on. His only stipulations were that it had to be something other than canvas or regular paper. A lot of people worked on wood, one or two on newspaper or metal. One inspired chief painted on a wooden cutting board. I can't quite remember all of them, but I remember floundering for several days trying to think of something. Luckily he'd given us the assignment well ahead of time, so we could think about it and search for materials over a holiday weekend or something of the sort.

The idea came to me at home. I've always liked to collect Toler's old shoes when he gets new ones put on, and I have various old shoes from many of the other horses I've ridden over the years. I just thought it would be fun to do something with them someday--get them welded together or made into hooks or photo frames. Painting on them just never entered my mind. Until that weekend.

My project emerged pretty quickly. I decided to do a series, intending it to be a larger 6-10 shoe series, though I only painted two for the class assignment, exploring the imprint of place on horse and rider. I titled it, "Strides of Truth and Dream."



The first shoe, called "Lace Strides" painted with oil. This shoe depicts the memory of our favorite field, always carpeted by lush grass, clover, and thousands of Queen Anne's Lace. Rides through it were always more than just gallops; the field and its nature became part of us. Part of our bond, our memories, our dreams, our experiences, our realities.



The second shoe of the series, called "Ocean Strides" prepped with acrylic granules, painted with oil with varnish finish for the water. This shoe depicts a dream of galloping against the waves, in and out of surf. Hoof-print left on the shore, this is the conceptual remainder of that ride that not even the waves can mask.

After college I had seriously intended to continue with the series. But there was a practical limitation--the surface space of each shoe was just too small to depict the types of scenes I imagined. So, painting shoes fell by the wayside for a while.


Coming up... Ideas Reborn: Mythic Strides

Cloudrange

The clouds make me think of mountains.

Run as the Rains Come

A Distance I Have Wandered

Another (barely) faux-HDR I did, mostly because I really wanted to preserve the radiance around the creek as well as the red lens flare on the lower left border.

Seem to Grin

"There's a house across the river, but alas. I cannot swim
And a garden of such beauty that the flowers seem to grin
There's a house across the river, but alas, I cannot swim
I'll live my life regretting that I never jumped in."
                          -Laura Marling - "Alas, I Cannot Swim"

Softer than a Chime

Asparagus foliage in the autumn.

In processing this one, I loved the vibrancy of the yellow and the deep blue of the sky behind it, but it still looked dimensionally flat. It needed something to help it "pop." So I employed a technique known as "boom vignetting" in the digital world--something many high school photography students are probably familiar with (though it's much easier to do digitally). In the darkroom, students like myself in our lunacy creative genius quickly learned that holding quirky-shaped papers above the center of the exposing paper produced a much more dramatic vignetting effect than the traditional corner-burning method. If you finessed the technique, it could even look natural. I can't say I've heard anyone speak about it with very serious tones, but I still wouldn't recommend underestimating the effect.

Using a cartoon-ish "explosion" shape in photoshop (or really any interesting shape/brush), you simply cut the shape out of a layer copy of the base image, use Gaussian Blur on that layer, select layer mode to "multiply," and scale back the opacity as needed. The result is a dramatic vignette effect without the obvious "vignette corner" appearance.

Solitude, Found

When one finally arrives at
      the point where schedules
are forgotten, and becomes immersed
      in ancient rhythms,
one begins to live.

                  -Sigurd Olson

Keebler

Keebler, a pony who joined the stable this last winter. I've had this photo for a while, and just kept forgetting to post it! I really can't get over how perfect the name "Keebler" is for a pony, though.

Silkweed

(Common) Milkweed, also known as silkweed. Milkweed sap can be applied as a remedy for poison ivy or to remove warts, and it was common to use as a clotting agent for small wounds. After being properly cooked, chewing the roots cures dysentery, and infusions of the roots and leaves was used to treat typhus fever, asthma, and to suppress coughs. The floss, which is hypoallergenic, is superior to down feathers when used as insulation. As an added surprise, the floss is evidently six times more buoyant than cork.



There is a section of trail that edges a field and cow pasture before the path retreats again into the woods, and it is home to hundreds of milkweed. When we walked through there in the fall, we caught the majority of the plants at their peak seeding time. Hundreds of seed pods, some not quite open but cracked, others splayed like wounds of fluff, and a few merely empty shells. The way the light hit the silk was simply splendid; I just couldn't stop taking photos.

Now I Wonder

This image was actually taken out the window of the car while we were driving around up north. I had to spend some time removing a few small dirt/dust spots. I focused on bringing out the sky (a little bit of saturation and a boost of highlights and lights with contrast) and as the foreground darkened I knew I wanted it to be a silhouette. A little black clipping and it was already there. A vignette completed the effect which, because of the car window, reminds me a little of a holga or lomo.

Never Elsewhere

A faux-HDR image I just finished. In truth, it's hardly HDR if compared to some of the hardcore HDR images out there, but that's just how I like it--grounded and not velveteen.

It came about mostly because I realized tonight that I no longer knew how to create a faux-HDR image myself with my photoshop program. PSE5, which I used to use, is very different from the PSE9 I have now. I'm still sorting everything out. For instance, I just realized that I can now do Photoshop Actions, albeit PSE-friendly ones. More importantly, I can streamline my photo work even more by creating my own Actions. =)

Lashes

While this image didn't come from the reject pile, I never got around to processing it because I initially thought it was a bit too much on the "alien-looking" side of equine eye shots. But I do love her eyelashes here.

Foalhood Dreams II

I decided I didn't want to wait to post this one. I used the same unconventional technique on this one as I did on Foalhood Dreams I, and I think it's pretty obvious what a difference it made on this image.

Perhaps it's the sunbeams in front of Andromeda, but the noise reduction here adds an entirely different level of texture. The grass looks more windswept but still have a necessary touch of sharpness, and the trees look like something out of a painting without looking painted themselves. And I still feel that the only real photo-shopping I did on this image was to remove an unsightly fencepost in the background by her nose.

With this image, I feel more like I've taken an unconventional photoshop filter and made it into a workable artistic tool, which is kind of nice.

Foalhood Dreams I

Another photo originally from the reject pile. I cropped it a little bit and decided to leave in the scrawny tall tree on a whim. I still can't decide if it's distracting or simply properly balancing, though.

I processed this one on the under-exposed side of things, dropped saturation level, and boosted the black clipping for a silhouette. A touch of extra brightness to give it that sunlit glow.

And then I did something a little crazy--something I've never done on a photo before. I decided there was too much detail. Too much sharpness. So I used noise reduction technology to give the pixels and the colors some softness while keeping the edges crisp. I'll admit that I *love* the effect of that on the trees, but I'm still trying to decide if I've crossed some invisible line into digital art-photography I'd never intended to cross.

Kelpie

I've been going through a few older equine shoots with the mind to dredge up some of the "cast aways" and give them some life. (Or find gems I'd forgotten about.)

This shot was sorted into the reject pile on several occasions, but when I saw it tonight something in it gripped me. There's a lot wrong with it technically--the blurry focal point (the eye), the extremes between the overly dark throat-latch and the nearly over-exposed face. But all of that did something for me this time. Combined with the color tones in the mare's coat and her liquid-eyed stare I thought immediately of the Kelpie. The black river horse. Mysterious but breathtaking. Her song is quiet but haunting. Irresistible. The lost pony, ever found.

Fae's Ladder

Autumn Alfalfa

Taken on one of those perfect fall days.

Can you smell the leaves?

What We Find

Not feeling particularly verbose this morning, so...Bonus photo!

Forest of Light

I almost deleted this one. I took it before thinking to readjust my exposure settings so things wouldn't be quite as overexposed. Then when I got home and looked through all the photos I'd taken (all 1000+ of them...), I liked this one so much more than the properly exposed versions. I just love the presence of light in it.

Not deleting photos "on scene" is actually a rule in digital photography, and this is precisely why. Until you can see it on a screen bigger than two thumbs put together, you just don't know. (Truth be told, I do still delete photos on scene, but only when something thoroughly disastrous occurred, such as it being obviously blurry or obviously ruined in another way. I probably shouldn't, but I do just for that extra bit of card space.)

Down by the Creekside

One of the new features on my (finally) updated photoshop elements is the ability to merge photos. You can merge two photos in terms of matching their tonal quality, colors, exposure, contrast, etc. Or you can merge photos by way of stitching them together to make panoramas, which I think is beyond awesome, mostly because it takes something that can be done digitally by hand in ~2 hours? and condense it into a simple one-minute, two mouse-click operation. It even corrects lens/angle distortion and, if desired, attempts to fill in any gaps around the edges so you don't have to crop it down a whole lot.

I haven't experimented with the color match aspect yet, but I have made a few panoramas. I'd taken some shots up north with the idea to display them side-by-side, like in those three-photo horizontal (or vertical) frames. Instead, I processed them in Lightroom and then stitched them together in PSE.

I was *really* excited about posting them online.

Except everywhere I upload them automatically down-sizes them because they're so wide. I don't know what to do about it, either. I spent most of a whole day trying to get it to cooperate, and I have nothing to show for it. Well, that's not entirely true...

See? It's frustratingly tiny.  =(  It is marginally bigger at its source url, but not a whole lot. I'm still trying to figure something out, though.


I got it to work (for the most part) over at DeviantArt. You'll just have to view it there. ;)

Until then I will simply post non-panoramic things. ;)

Ebb

Hello fellow readers! Remember me? I wouldn't expect you to, to be honest. Yes, I've been away for a rather long time. I didn't really even keep up with my reading list, and for that I am doubly sorry.

The ol' family desktop died on us at the end of December, but I was lucky enough to get a new machine. A very fast, gorgeous one that has yet to leave me anything other than amazed.

I'm finally getting back into the swing of working with my photos, and I must say, it's much more rewarding now that I don't have to wait for some aspect of the program to load every minute and a half. I also bought a new version of Photoshop Elements, which has me highly amused right now as well. (Forthcoming post on that tomorrow.)

In short, I'm back. With "new" photos to post, even.

The creek in the North Woods. I desaturated most colors except for blues, purples, and magentas so I could really bring out this tone. A little extra black clipping and punch, a touch of extra highlights and I love its strength.

I hope everyone had an excellent holiday season, and the new year has treated you well thus far!