What is my Process?

 

“All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.”
― Oscar Wilde

 

At least once a month I get asked by someone how I create my pictures and what process I use. I usually explain that it is all done digitally in Photoshop with a combination of stock photos and some really great filters and some brushwork. I wonder if explaining even close to a step by step would be interesting but still people ask.
Tonight I’ll pull back the curtain a bit and do a kind of step by step of how the picture below was made.
I enjoy playing with fractals. At the very least a fractal can be played with and maneuvered into an eye pleasing mandala and occasionally I get some inspiration.
Tonight I started with the fractal creation program Chaotica HD and started playing with colour and pattern…When I ended up with something I liked, I pulled it into Photoshop and doubled it upon itself (Took one half and reversed it so that the result was symmetrical). I then played with colour a bit more.
At that point I knew this was not going to be a mandala but had no idea what it wanted to be. I copied the layer, took the layer and made it into a 3D ring and then angled it blending it with a screen. I then copied that layer several times, angling the rings in different ways and blending them together until I had the shadows of two rings each including the whole background.
What next?
I brought in a cat head and started blending it in before I stopped because that wasnt what it was… A face within the fractal, a woman?
I started looking through my collection of photos and found one of a woman on a cross. This seemed to fit somehow with the stormy nature of the fractal… I removed her from the background and played around with the colours a bit… Doubling the layer than inversing the colour then playing with different blend modes until she shone with that red blue combination and was just veiled enough that people may question whether it was a woman or a man.
I played around with the blending… and then wanted some more texture in the background. I have this great add-in Postworkshop 64 that adds all kinds of paint effects and I found one that worked, adding the texture and giving it much more of a windswept effect.
After that it was just a matter of listening to what needed to be in. The butterfly, the figure watching both needed to be there. At this point i was pretty open and engaging in dialogue with the picture… I knew a child needed to be in. The picture was about ongoing life not death and resurrection even the figure on the cross (and why it had to be a woman) was about sacrificing the self to the self akin to the Hanged Man in the tarot. I needed something to represent the child. Thinking in terms of Thelemic themes, it had to be Horus…and somewhat akin to the Aeon card in the Thoth tarot, i wanted him to convey the idea of silence (the finger held up). So I found an appropriate picture of a child and blended in the Hawk’s head…and added a slight corona. I then stylized in the symbol for the scarlet woman, Babylon on the woman.
I then liked the picture overall so added an oil painting filter over it… and blended that in with the bottom layer and the picture was finished.
Hmmm I don’t know that I’ll be asked this question again soon. Thanks for your patience in reading it.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

At Play With PassionAt Play With Passion by G A Rosenberg

 

Somehow it BreathesSomehow it Breathes by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 22 2012

“If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm — but that’s a lie…. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.”
Vincent Van Gogh

And now for something at least slightly different….

Journey Down the Dream Corridor… a story fragment in early draft

In my dream I was standing when I heard a voice, I was uncertain of the gender but it was soft and mellow

“Have you forgiven yourself yet?

I started walking or at least moving like I do in dreams and walked into the next room
A woman was there, unfamiliar and yet known. Heavy set yet short with a face framed by brown hair, looking old fashioned but sweet with eyes that shone like they used to maybe with a touch more weariness

“Rosante?” I asked

“Yes, its been awhile.”

“It’s been thirty-two years since Jan forbade me from seeing you again. Because i…”

“Because you told me you knew about me and Jan. That he would touch me and ask me to touch him. I’ve never seen him so angry and I never felt so shattered. Or maybe so free.”

“He was my best friend”

“He was my brother and my lover. He was also yours”

“No, well only the two times” I laughed tho its the kind of laugh that scrapes glass across your inside.

“You wanted more.” She said softy not accusingly and took my hand. “I knew you didn’t want me for myself but for what I represented. A way to be closer to him”

“No.” i shook my head “That’s not true”. Tho I knew it was.. I felt my surroundings start to spin

“It’s ok. I moved on, got some therapy got myself together. You were kind to me. I forgave you long ago.”She moved over to a window I hadn’t noticed before.

“The question is have you forgiven yourself”

I thought I had. I had long ago reconciled with the loss of friendship not only of Jan but of Rose as well. I had felt guilty about that bit of innocence, my spoken knowledge and Jan’s anger had ripped from her but I had always thought that it was her that I wanted for herself. Could it have been all about Jan. He had been my first teacher in the realm of magic, spirituality, qabalah and Castaneda. He seduced me, saying he sensed that element in my nature. We had been roommates for a few years and occasionally double dated girls whom Jan worked with at the mall.

Then he introduced me to Rose and told me the story of the sister whom he comforted and held through the tyranny of their mother’s second marriage. The sister whom he took advantage of, describing to me all the times he had disrobed her of the negligees that he bought for her. I met her and fell hard or so I thought. Could it have realy been all about Jan?

Still it had been so long ago. It taught me discretion and that sometimes it is better to not say what you know just because you have shared knowledge with another. I kept tabs for awhile. I found that Rose had started to date Jack, another friend and student of Jan’s so I figured in the long run no permanent damage was done.

Now I realized that I had wanted Rose not for herself but as an object of affection I knew what that felt like . I looked at Rose. “Yes..”
“Goodbye then,” she started fading and where she had been standing was a new door partly ajar

I heard the question again as I reached for the doorknob.

“Have you forgiven yourself?”

There will be more to the story as the Dream Corridor has many rooms and  forgiveness and redemption an ongoing process.
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full size

Inside the Dragon’s Mouth by G A Rosenberg

Funhouse Corridor in Chapel Perilous by G A Rosenberg