For years, I have been unsuccessful in photographing May Apple blooms. (It can be dark down there on the ground with my macro lens in a deep May Apple forest.) This spring, I was able to capture several with backlighting. Backlit images offer plenty of oppportunities for transparency and interesting shadows.
One of my favorite applications of digital silk painting is to lightly print an image onto silk crepe de chine, then paint it with my Dupont dyes. Printing an underpainting first gives me another layer from which to play with the subtext of an image. Crepe de chine holds a lot of color and has a rich luster.
1. Original Photo
2. Foreground Prepared for Painting
3. Begin Painting
Here, I have painted pastel shadows on the whitest petals, painted cold wax resist on areas that will be highlights, and begun painting the leaves.
4. The final painting after steaming. It even made it to the brochure for the exhibit, "Stand in the Place you Live" sponsored by Legacy Land Conservancy and the Chelsea Center for the Arts.
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