Angels

The last post that I did, I spoke of a new piece that I am working on.

Last year, at one of the (many) baseball games that I went to

with my sweetie (who is a college umpire), I came across an old cemetery in Forest City, NC.

It's not too big, off the beaten path

and has several graves of young children in it.

The first thing that I noticed were the angels.

There are oh, maybe five or six of them.

Small, yet striking in their sentinel poses,

as they stand guard over their tiny charges.

Quiet and unimposing they garner all the grace

needed to soothe the hearts of the grieving

and the souls of the lost.

They really touched my heart.

I just couldn't get them out of my mind...

they made me sad yet, at the same time, I felt a subdued joy for the lost little ones.

They were welcomed into the arms of their eternal guardians...

safe through time.

We all should believe in something...

Don't you think so?

And believing in angels in a good place to start...

Here is the original photo, with the contrast and brightness pumped up so the shadows would be darker.

I love the way that the rosary and cross cast shadows on the arm and dress.

If you notice, the right side of the angel (her left side) has very few shadows.

Her right side has very crisp shadows.

This is an example of what I talk about when you're drawing faces (or anything ftm).

You have a light source on one side, casting shadows on the opposite side.

You really need to pay attention to that when you're drawing/painting.

I'll be posting a photo of the piece in a few days.

I'm really enjoying working with this new transfer type technique that I happened upon.

It's so, so easy and the results are just fantastic!