I created a new digital art piece this winter. I used images from both my photos and my watercolor paintings, which was a first for me. A few of the same photo elements can also be seen in a previous digital piece, “Phantom Memories”
(https://lucyarnoldcs.wpengine.com/Phantom%20Memories.htm. My first effort in digital photo montage was “Memory Fantasia” https://lucyarnoldcs.wpengine.com/Memory%20Fantasia.htm.
This new piece, titled “Flights of Fancy in Medusa’s Realm”
is similar in that it appears to be a sort of fairy tale or myth without words. At least, that’s what it felt like as I worked on it.
I needed to find a way to tie two of the main characters (Dragon and Angel) together. Then the idea of using a storm of butterflies hit me… I loved the idea that beautiful, delicate butterflies from an Angel’s hand could defeat a powerful, threatening foe.
The decision to incorporate bits of artwork from my watercolor paintings took me in a new direction. The style is still realistic, but even more surreal. It was rather tricky getting the two types of imagery to mesh, however. I think it helped that there’s also digital painting on the Dragon and Red Frog images.
It’s really amazing how time-consuming it is to work digitally! Nothing is as simple as it appears, especially when trying to figure out by trial and error how to get the desired effects in Photoshop. There certainly must be more efficient ways to do many of the things I did. I hope to learn lots more before attempting another digital painting/montage.
I don’t know quite what the story is that this piece describes, but I felt that all the disparate elements fit together into a narrative somehow. Anyone want to make up a story to go with the picture?