My second attempt with this one, and I really love how much there is to explore here.
Original Image
I was immediately draw to the idea of guidance with this image.
First Attempt
I knew I wanted ‘something different,’ though unsure exactly what that meant. I tried using some of the digital painting apps in new or less-used ways and arrived at this. A few thoughts I had after creating this one:
I like the monotones here. Maybe it draws focus to her expression. I am not sure how I feel about the texture. It feels coarse, which does not match her presentation. I thought maybe I could try something softer, more dreamlike. But I don’t really want it to feel like a dream. I don’t want it to express ‘heavenly’ necessarily. In that way, the coarseness grounds the image for me. It’s not entirely ethereal; it is of this world. She’s not looking at the camera, though the viewer is so aligned with the child that it feels almost as if she’s looking at you.
On an emotional level, you could identify with the woman, the child, or the viewer who is witnessing this intimate interaction and explore what that means to you and what emotions arise from that perspective.
Second Attempt
Not fully satisfied with the first attempt, and wanting to go a little further with this one, I used iColorama to work from a ‘sketch’ of the original image and revealed just the two people.
In reflecting on the final image, this step brought to mind some words I wrote down about creating from @art2life:
Not sure about something in your art? Get rid of it.
Three powerful reasons why taking away helps.
1. Clarity – when you take things away, what remains becomes more clear.
2. Confidence – your confidence goes up. Eliminating something is a decision you’re getting in motion. You feel more confident.
3. Ease – it creates spaciousness. You feel more rested, more easeful. You can see more clearly what it is you’re chasing.
After subtracting and revealing the parts I wanted to keep, I was ready to add.
The added image was from a sunrise hike to the Arches, with my daughter in the morning light. I had pulled this image for a different one I was working on but didn’t end up using it.
Had I not gone through that ‘failure’ this morning hike image would not have been at the top of my image feed and I probably wouldn’t have considered it for this one.
I played around with the alignment of the hiking trail, adjusted a few things in Lightroom mobile, ‘painted’ in Procreate, and overlayed some texture.
The double exposure addition ultimately removed the original child from the frame. Which shifted the meaning for me. Or rather, added more ambiguity, expanding the possibilities for interpretation. It also removed the smile from her eyes, making her expression a little less understood.
Compared with my first attempt, this one does feel more spacious and less heavy. It is somehow both more and less clear to me, which I love.
