IF - Atmosphere

work in progress

Did you I.F. today? The new IllustrationFriday.com prompt, Atmosphere,  dropped into my mailbox with this  Claude Monet quote: “For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.”

  

This piece still has a way to go. But I decided to post anyway, since this weekend promises to be busy.  Just for kicks - here is how things have come together so far:

I always love a foggy day on a rocky beach. The neutral pallet and  limited vision make anything seem possible, giving the moment a fairy-tale quality. I took this photo years ago in Cape Breton. Although it doesn't really capture the ambiance, it always reminds me of that mysterious vibe.

I pumped the color & added a cellophane filter in Photoshop Elements. Here's a closeup of the added texture.

Medieval Romance 2 from Lisajen-stock

Then I looked around the stock photos at Deviantart.com for a maiden to wander my beach. This lovely lady is from lisajen-stock.deviantart.com. 

First I made an ink drawing. I was playing with the idea of placing her on the beach & then erasing the white paper. Maybe making a ghosty-foggy kind of thing.

But then I stumbled over some Derwent Inktense pencils & a fun fairytale paper from DCWV's The Once Upon A Time Stack, so I had another go at the lady.

I scanned the sketch & then used P.E. to erase the surrounding paper. 

 

I started playing with the  dry brush eraser on the bottom of her dress, hoping to make her blend into the surroundings better.

 

While I'm not yet happy with this piece, I hope to pull it together eventually.  She still needs some more blending, cropping & maybe a color tweak or some transparency. We'll see....

By the way, IllustrationFriday is open to anyone who wants to play & they accept a variety of mediums. You've got until next Friday to get inspired by the prompt & then post your creation to your blog, flicker or other account. Pop over to the IF site  & add your link so that folks can check out your creation. Also, be sure to check out the other submissions. The variety is always impressive - you will find work of all levels in all sorts of materials.

A final note: No studio tour here tomorrow - Sorry about that. I'm running behind on stuff (as usual). Little Dude starts school next week, so hopefully I can get the blogging schedule back on track soon. Thanks for your patience!