I've been watching and experimenting with Erin Cobb's clean color tutorial. I deliberately took one of my quite terrible photos of baby I (underexposed, color cast as well as nasty baby skin) to see what I could do. I think the improvement is amazing, especially considering this is my first attempt at this. It took a pretty unusable photo and turned it into something I might actually print!
Here is a really interesting video from Tim Mantoani, photographer. I had never heard of Tim until recently when someone on the dpreview forums suggested I watch his Blue Crane Digital Nikon Speedlights video. The speedlight video was really informative and I went to his web site to look at his work and stumbled across his Behind the Photos project where he is taking photos of photographers standing behind their famous photo.
In this 1 1/2 hour presentation, Tim talks about his work and some of his projects including the Behind the Photos project. Very inspirational.
I thought I'd unveil my Terry Ludwig Salmagundi Club Cityscape Set online too (I was feeling bad about not opening it, using it, or putting it with my other colors (after all I did *buy* it!). Here is the packaging.
Inside each box you get a blank color chart that you fill out for your records so that when you run out of a color you can figure out what color it was by matching the tiny left over chip of pastel with the marks you made on the chart, that way you can reorder your fave colors.
And this is what you see inside once you open the box. And Terry, if you're reading this, how about sending me your portrait set so I can post some pictures and rave about it on my blog? That's what I was going to buy when it went on sale but then I found out about this new set and got it instead, the portrait set is still on my wish, wish, wish list.
My studio desk is now cleaned up and I'm getting ready to make a mark!
I love color! Just looking at colorful things makes me happy. I'd thought I'd share my colorful pastel palette with you. It makes me so happy to look at it. I keep it all in my Heilman Pastel box which I bought myself for my birthday about 3 or 4 years ago? It is the most well made, sturdy little box and I highly recommend every pastel artist have one.
You can travel with the box and don't have to worry about any "crunching" of pastels as there is memory foam inside holding everything in place. In the studio you can open it and "lock" it open. You can place it open on a table or, get this, there is a tripod mount underneath so you can place it at any height on a tripod (this is great for plein air).
This is the smallest size and you can see how much it holds (this shot is cropped so there is even more you can't see). It folds up to little more than the dimensions of a smallish pad of paper (10x13 ish) and has both a handle and shoulder strap for carrying.
In it I keep my Terry Ludwigs (I *heart* these, I would be their spokesperson if they let me!) they are beautiful soft pastels but too small (and too gorgeous) to break, my Sennelier 100 Landscape set (these have been broken in half), my Rembrandts (general 30 and portrait 30 sets) broken, my prismacolor nupastels (30 set). I have another 60 Terry Ludwigs (the Salamagundi set) that I haven't put in yet because I'm not sure I have room to put in all of them and I don't want to split the set.
Just looking at them makes me want to go play and get dusty! Yes, the downside is the dust, believe me in my house you wouldn't necessarily notice any more dust, but it's important not to breath it in because of the risk associated with certain pigments.
Mother of 3 and workaholic IT Project Manager, I am dedicated to telling life's stories using words, photos and art. I hope it inspires you to capture a piece of your life. ♥
