The Last Antigone - Final Image

Finally it is done!

After adding in my details I then combined them all by adding a mist to the background. The mist is a layer of colour that I ran the clouds filter over and then masked it with a gradient so that only the parts of the background in the distance were covered.

This served a number of purposes. It separated Antigone and the fantail from the background giving more depth to the image, it helped to fade the tree into the background making it more a part of the image, and also very importantly it added atmosphere.

I then needed to make sure that all the pieces had an overall colour, completing the illusion. I rendered a lighting effect using a red light and a directional spotlight. The effect was quite harsh so I then faded the overall effect until it was just subtle enough to complete the illusion and hey presto the image is complete.

Then it was onto the typeface to use. I love type I consider it to be just as important to get right as the image itself, the wrong typeface or used incorrectly can really destroy an image. It's one of the things I find frustrating about the web, the need to use universal typefaces that everyone has it would be so cool if we could all just embed our own typefaces into our web pages. Maybe you can and I just haven't figured out how yet, I'm not a web designer don't claim to be!

Anyway for this image it needed a font that continued with the theme, the picture is like a dark fairytale and all dark fairytale images say to me Art Nouveau. So I chose an Art Nouveau font that had a straight edge to the A, simply so that it would fit alongside Antigone's back and neatly inside the gate where it would be framed making it clearly the most important piece of the text. Also for those in the know the red A (the same red as the apple) will also allude to the anarchist qualities of Antigone's actions in the play.

So know that it's done I simply need to add the details like sponsored by and where and when. The response so far to the picture has been fantastic, cast and crew love it and everyone that Wayne (the director) shows it to is really impressed, here's hoping that some more work comes out of it. I would love to work in this area of design it really gives freedom to my creativity so much more so than product advertising.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

To see more of the picture and larger images of the details go to my website and view the portfolio. www.beachcast.co.nz/portfolio.html

New Zealand Native Birds

After completing the wasp and the apples on and under the tree I decided it was time to start adding some wild life.

I have included a beautiful little jewelled gecko which rare as they are I am lucky to have a number living in the bush around where I live, they can be tricky to get photos of though as they scare and move quickly and when they do sun themselves the little beggars usually leave their heads in the bush. I have found a great photo to use though which fits in nicely.

















By far the biggest challenge with wildlife has been the birds, their wings are partially translucent especially in flight.

I had to mask firstly around the edge of the birds and then using the black brush at various opacities I brushed over the wings to alow the back ground in my picture to show through and effect their colour. Giving the Fantastic result seen below. Very whimsical I think. This beautiful fantail picture was kindly provided for the project by Kerry Mitchel, you can see more of her stunning work a http://www.pbase.com/kerrym/root

Using the same process I also added the spoonbill in flight (Top) and the pukeko (below). So that the pukeko would fit in with the background, tree and the apples that it was amongst I also ran a dry brush filter over it and then faded the effect so that it was just enough to make the bird fit with it's surroundings.

Rotten Apples

One of the challenges of this particular project is adding all the little details, it's because these little details will be what pulls the whole picture together even though most people will never notice them.

One of those details is the apples especially the apple that Antigone holds. In the play Antigone is denied rotten apples by the farmer that owns the tree because if he feeds her then he will have to feed every beggar that comes his way. It's a fairly poignant part of the play hence why I chose to use it for the poster. So Antigone really needs to be holding a rotten apple and I felt that to really illustrate the point it needed to be crawling with wasps and flies. One of those knock you on the head type symbols.

I found this picture of an apple with a wasp crawling inside it and a fly which is perfect so all I needed to do was add them to Antigone's apple.














First I adjusted colour to closely match the apple in my picture and then I had to re size it as the image was far larger than that in the poster.

Once it was re sized I realised that the fly was going to end up under Antigone's finger so I put it onto a layer of it's own so that I could position it separately from the wasp. Then using a soft brush I slowly masked out the rest of the picture just leaving the wasp and the hole being very careful not to lose any detail around the edge of the hole. Then I did the same for the fly carefully burning and dodging around the flies legs.



It was actually quite a simple mask but I think it has been very effective and hey presto I have a wasp crawling inside Antigone's apple.

Final working image

I've been away on holiday for the past couple of days with my family so progress on The Last Antigone slowed right down for awhile. We went to the West Coast and stayed at the Fox Glacier, I have some fantastic pictures which I hope to process and will post as a slide show here soon.

Yesterday I got stuck back into the Antigone project, I had a meeting with Wayne the director just before I went on holiday at which point we decided to change the background. Wayne had envisaged a vista that rolled down and out with water not what I was thinking which was a plain heading out to mountains. Anyway I found this picture which is one I took earlier this year from Quarantine Island in the Otago Harbour, I think it works really well, it's also available as a Giclee print on my website.

Wayne also was looking more for a black and white or monotone image, but I am sticking to my guns on that one and using a combination of muted monotones and over saturated colour as I had origingally planned and I think the image is all the better for it. I am really pleased with how it is coming together and now all I have to do is refine the edge details of all the masked elements and finish adding all of the little details that will really make the image. A Kraken in the water, some Greek Temple type ruins on the hill in the background along with some local wildlife.

Horses for courses

Well a few days have gone by and I'm making progress, I have a skinny horse!! I found a picture of reasonable quality that I could use of a horse. The horse is already a little skinny and not only that he has his head beautifully drooped in quite a sad way that really helps to add to the emotion of the overall image.

The bit that amuses me the most about this image is that the techniques used to emaciate the horse are the same as those used to thin down already emaciated fashion models lol.

Overall I am really happy with how the horse has turned out and he blends flawlessly into the central Otago background that I have chosen for the image.

I have also found my apple tree, there is this fantastic old apple tree growing on the side of the road around the corner from me. It has that wonderful quality that only comes from the chance growth of an apple core chucked on the side of the road. It is scraggly and notted, nothing really grows in uniform and it's perfect for the harsh conditions of Central Otago.

Masking a tree lol now thats a challenge, I tried to get my photographs with the background being mostly harbour and sky so that should help. Wish me luck anyway I think it's going to be the hardest mask job I've ever had to do and that includes hair.

Reatha

The Last Antigone

Fantastic I'm not even properly launched and I have a brilliant commission. The Last Antigone is a contemporary version of Sophocles's play Antigone, in this version Antigone is Dunedin royalty, a young woman who's only care is how to play up to the paparazzi. She is thrust into a situation where she must question the The ruling State and in doing so pay the ultimate price.

This play has been written by Tee O'neil a short blurb about her outstanding ability as a writer can be seen here http://www.ozscript.org/author.php?id=536 and will be seen during Dunedin's next Fringe Festival next March.

I have been asked to come up with a concept for the poster and advertising flyer's.

This has been a really fun project to be thinking about, I have read the play about four times now and have come up with a number of ideas and luckily my favourite idea and I believe by far the strongest has been well embraced by the plays Director.

This is what I see!

An apple tree is surrounded by a rumpety fence,

apples lie rotting on the ground,

a skinny horse stands on the other side of the fence to one side (the right).

On the fence hangs a sign it says something along the lines of "Forbidden Fruit by order of the state" or something to that effect.

The background is central Otago spanning into the distance mountain ranges and Tors.

Antigone stands under the tree she wears a cloak so we can't really see her face she holds a rotten apple (death/grim reaper like but still feminine).

The background colours are muted while the front colours are over saturated, the whole picture looks almost painted/textured Think National bank ad at the end the horse stands by a tree (not with green filter obviously) think Big Fish.

I also see other things going on in the picture that is only obvious to those who look, a skink on a fence post, a caterpillar on a leaf, small critters getting up to strange things maybe, a family tree spelled out in apples.

This is going to be a large and challenging project, but I can see it really paying off and I hope that they will be the sort of poster that people will want to keep.

Reatha

Making My Website

WOW what a mission! And it's still not completely done, still I felt it was time to get it up and then just continue to add things as they are done. Mostly it's just the galleries that need completed which hopefully (cross fingers) won't take too long.

Please feel free to let me know what you think