“The labyrinthine man never seeks the truth but always and only his Ariadne.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
When I wrote the Sinful Sunday prompt back at the tail end of last year I was excited for this one (Recreate someone else’s image) but as it has approached I was suddenly at a loss of what to do. I started thinking about Renaissance paintings and looking online at various ones to see if there was one that inspired me. I had a few potentials
Unrelated to this I had decided to play around with my camera one day. I had set up the camera, the exposure etc, with the sun out. It was bright and I thought it would be fun to try and get a picture of me sunbathing naked just laying on the lawn. I took a couple using my remote trigger and then a great big black cloud snuffed out the sunlight and suddenly things were very different. I took the picture, not expecting much from it, knowing it would be too dark but when I uploaded the images onto my computer it was that dark one that really caught my eye.
In Lightroom I dropped the shadows and blacks tons more and then upped the exposure ever so slightly on my skin and hair and, well, I loved it but I kept looking at it thinking it reminds me of something and I then I realised that it had a renaissance painting feel to it. I went back to the images I had set aside and realised that I had inadvertently created an image that whilst not the same definitely felt similar to this painting by William Etty. It was painted in the early to mid 1800’s so not renaissance in origin but definitely in style. Etty was known for his ability to paint realistic flesh tones and painted number nudes throughout his career.
Once I realised this I went back to my image and edited it a bit more, applied a filter that gave it painted effect. I think it is the paleness of my skin against the dark tones and the pop of red colour from my hair that mirrors the red in the image and whilst the image is not from the same angle the way I am laying and how my feet and legs has the same feel to it.
So what do you think? Can you see the similarities?
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