HabuCharmer

This is just a really quick, rough sketch using 2 of my own photos, of poor resolution, photoshop layers and the brush and smudge tools.

Habu is a snake, a pit viper specificly, a "power" element dropped into the Japanese version of Tequila, so I learn from one I cherish who recently discovered it.

Snake is a symbol that weaves throughout my life, my daughters name, my Vedic sun sign (Rohini, snake), my Vedic moon sign symbol is the Lingam (Hindu phallic symbol of Siva; also symbolic of spiritual regeneration), actual encounters with sidewinders while living in the Sonoran Desert and dreams at periods in my life, in addition to being one of our primary collective symbols.

Though the wings are not that of an eagle (the Mexican symbol, with snake in beak, or in talons, can't remember) the image arose...with charged significance in my own psyche, a charmer with owls wings, or are they angel wings? ...will work these connections a little further in months to come, and develop the images overall story.

transparentTimes

In 2nd term I had my first experience with Adobe Illustrator.
It's a tricky program to pickup.
We were assigned to create watches.
Many of my classmates recreated highly accurate renditions
of high-end watches, some of them really masterfully.
I didn't take to the program as readily, and procrastinated terribly.
The night before this was due my laptop crashed so I threw this together. Of coarse, it's not what my instructor was seeking.
(She was an excellent teacher though.)

I had no interest in recreating copies of watches, but discovered a way in which I'd like to further explore the program. I learned a lot. I love the vector precision of it's application, and look forward to getting into it more fully, but presently I am deepening my photoshop skills.

The top left idea is my favorite. The idea could be more fully explored.
Kind of dig the transparent lightness of time theme, and the elegant feminine quality to it's lines.

In any case, illustrator is an incredible program.
I still haven't really scratched more than the surface of it.

Hwy15_David@CeasarsPalace

David before and after Photoshop

We set out in the Mojave at sunrise for Las Vegas. I wanted to spare Toyota and Senica, as much as possible, from the relentless beat of the desert sun. We arrived in Vegas around 11AM
and saw David among other things in Ben Seigel and Virginia Hills lovechild.

I didn't realize how strongly that blazing sun influenced me until I paired my version of the David photo with a sunrise shot taken that morning, the colors match completely...
wonder how I'll experience David in Florence (I believe) when I take Senica to Italy for her 16th birthday..

It was interesting to me how I could actually build layers in photoshop that more truly conveyed the inner light and tonal nuance of marble. Perhaps in controlled lighting conditions and with the right knowledge of, and camera capable of it, this could be captured directly.