Vintage drawing
Digital Hybrid
Original work 108×68 cm
Oil pastel and paint drawing on paper
I found this old drawing in amongst a mountain of life drawings, hidden in an old folio done a few years ago. The woman is ancient but beautiful with an Egyptian feel and the drawing seemed to lend itself to a vintage makeover in Photoshop. I wanted to capture the charm of old paintings, like a brown toned and dark Rembrandt or the mood of a Turner landscape. Of course I did not achieve quite that (!!!@?) but I am happy with the result and have learned a lot in the process.
It is often difficult in Photoshop with the infinite number of choices and a lot of time has been wasted waltzing down the wrong garden path. Keeping it simple and working with blending modes and opacities seems to be the key, sometimes adding gradients and using the clone and paint brush tools when necessary for corrections in the drawing.
Appropriating my own work into the new digital medium in this case has been a real sepia romance, quite a challenge, even addictive, certainly refreshing and a big change from working with oil pastel sticks and paint. Out of the studio and into the pixels again.
Vintage drawing belongs to the following groups:
All Things Poetic, Prose, Philosophical., Fine Arts, Mixed Media, Out of the Past, Passions and PixElations - The Art of PhotoshopAvailable for sale as Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints
Barbara Sparhawk, 3 months ago
Very very wonderful, rosepepper, and so much your style. All your work has the wonderfully rounded flesh of an artist who understands anatomy and that there are bone and muscle and organs of substance that skin houses. The modern and ancient combined is fine, and I’m sure she would’ve loved windows (at least to keep the sand and wind out!) and it’s a splendid touch of bringing her up to date, up to us. This is also true to your work: how well seated the subject is with sensibility about her position and weight, and how beautifully you always handle perspective, which I remember most clearly in your Alice in Wonderland paintings that are a riot of movement for that reason. Very fine work. I’m glad you found it and presented it. And yes, the kinds of things that can be done with computers are a phenomenon, and it’s time consuming but most likely not wasted because skills are enhanced for the next go’round. But one still needs something solid and good to start with, and what you’ve done here is original and excellent.
Barbara Sparhawk, 3 months ago
I see. She’s stepping down from her pedestal and has come to fleshy life. Missed that in the first go.
rosepepper in reply to Barbara Sparhawk’s comment, 3 months ago
You know that things happen in the process of drawing and letting it go opens doors on the imagination. My very favourite model Jane B had a kind of dignity to her poses that inspired both a modern and an ancient wisdom, so I have to give credit where it is due…. she was extraordinary. Great models can be the making of an artist. Painting is harder since the line around and along the form is not enough, the paintbrush commands a different approach and often I cannot convert a drawing into paint….... fortunately for me digital imaging has opened another door and a lot of that half finished work can be reborn. Thanks for all your comments and especially on the anatomy and perspective, very much appreciated, very much in my mind when working.
bev langby, about 1 month ago
I like this very much its so appropriate that she is slowly coming to life , it gives meaning to the afterlife that the Egyptians so believed in , i was once told that in a former life i was a member of the court of an Egyptian princess lol would have been more interesting to say that i had been the princess but what the heck lol i like your work ….......
rosepepper in reply to bev langby’s comment, about 1 month ago
hello bev and thank you. I am sure you are an ancient princess in other ways lol. Yeah the Egyptian culture still lives and fascinates and sometimes i see it in the faces of models. I like your digital painting and the broad stroke and feel.