Painting With Light
My photography assignment this week was painting with light. We had two pictures to submit – one using a light source to paint either an abstract picture, words, or anything else into the camera. Different colours of light could be used as well as different materials over the lights to give texture. I ended up buying a keychain light that was a bluish-purple hue and a green glow stick to use with my regular flashlight. I tried a few different things – painting the outline of my boyfriends body, trying to spell words (hard), and drawing anything and everything which by the way, I am terrible at. The finished products turned out abstract but kinda funky with the different colours.
The second assignment was to paint an object. It could be anything – a statue, a bench, whatever. My original idea was to get one of those really creepy dolls that have eyelids that open and close and to paint it on a bench in the park. Clearly I’m going for creep factor here. Am I a freak? YES! When I had coffee with a girlfriend, she suggested hanging the doll from a tree which I liked the idea of – it would give the picture that extra element of creepiness. Double freak!
This is how my conversation with my boyfriend went last night: “Hey babe, do you want to go get some Thai Food and then help me haul my camera equipment deep into the park where it’s dark enough to hang this doll from a tree and take pictures? Oh and do you think I should put dirt on it or fake blood? And duct tape the mouth or not?”. God I am such a romantic! The best part was he helped me! But he was also acting like a scared little girl. Not only were we in a super dark park at night hanging a freakish doll but the park is an old Indian Burial Site. Probably top 10 of my most exciting things I have done on a Saturday night – I love to freak myself out.
The picture didn’t exactly work out as planned. The doll wouldn’t stop twirling around because it was windy and I needed to paint something still or the picture wouldn’t work. I tried the doll in the grass but it just wasn’t what I had envisioned and a bench would have been too reflective. Slightly beaten down and freaked out we headed home after a good hour of trial and error. I decided to use one of my dining room chairs and put the dolls arm up kind of like it was handcuffed to the chair. Paired with the baby-mouth sized piece of duct tape it was perfect – 10 on the creep scale. It took me a while to get the shading and colours I wanted because it’s super hard to figure out where you are painting when the flashlight’s light is thick. Overall it was a pretty cool experience and I’m addicted! Painting with light is like a whole other medium and the possibilities are endless.
Here are my finished products:
