The process...

This image is featured on my website for the month of March. So, here's... THE STORY behind the picture of POE I wanted to do "another Poe" My original "Poe" --the one titled "Edgar Allan Crow," that combined the author's portrait and a raven-- was well received. But I always wanted to take another shot at the troubled and mysterious Edgar Allan Poe. First, I had worked up a rough sketch of his portrait. I scanned that in and combined it in Photoshop with a photo of myself leaning against a church wall in Ireland. (I had my file of photos from an Ireland trip opened as I had just used one of a river for my Virginia Woolf portrait). The photo was manipulated somewhat and re-proportioned to fit in the archway of the church to make it look more like a door. When my rough was finished, I printed it out and began drawing "on and into" it. I left a lot in the face to be drawn from scratch but allowed the transparancies created from the quick masking and layer effects used in Photoshop for this under drawing to stay "as is." When it came to open space of the door, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. At one point I thought a woman's face filling the opening might work and began lightly sketching it in. But as I hadn't really planned it out, I started second guessing myself. And finally, just "scribbled it out." That scribbling became the smoke-like effect that now fills that void. It originally was very black on that side of Poe's face and body. "Coming out of the shadows" did have an appropriate look to it, however, in "fixing this mistake," I do like how the light grey-blue helps define that side of the portrait and centers the focal point to Poe's face. A "happy accident" I guess you might call it. But I see as just a part of the process -- sometimes you don't know where something might take you.