A Contemporary Digital Collage of BBC Sherlock

Clues flying at the speed of light - Sherlock brains his way unraveling mysteries!  The excellent cast and production of the BBC Sherlock series have caused me to want to create a collage that has a contemporary feel and looks somewhat like a traditional collage made with paper scraps with some of the images looking cut out.

It is more involved than many of my collages with more images on different layers (see below).

This is a new look for me and a style that I have dreamed about doing, kind of contemporary without a lot of fussy detail which I seem to do without trying! 

Although some would argue this design is not exactly simplistic, I like that I did not have to be exact in cutting some things out (time consuming), with some images having a rough cut look and not much shading except to use the photo editor curves to lighten or darken some images.  One of my first attempts at painting are in this image.  I painted Sherlock's scarf, as small a thing as that can still not look right if you are not careful.  It wasn't as hard to find the right color and paint it as I thought, so little by little I think I will be doing more painting.

The way this image turned out has given me confidence to want to do some shading with the paint brush and maybe color some areas to emphasis an object in another project.  I did have to do some resizing of images which is normal and makes designing in a digital editor a joy.  Objects can be reduced and not enlarged because pixels can become stretched.  Sometimes I do enlarge as long as it is not stretched too much and put a texture over it.

I got the idea to add to this image the Union Jack for some extra punch although I still like the above image for it's simple design.  I kept these images somewhat dark for a mysterious look somewhat like the BBC

 
dark blue toned ad image with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman looking as though they are on a case in the dark of night.

I am currently working on another project, a Downton Abbey image.  It is always a challenge to try to find images that will have the right look and get the overall style I have in my mind.  A lot of the time I get ideas as I am working on a project.  I am trying for somewhat of a period look, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.  I thought I would share it in the unfinished stage so you can see some of my process.

The image has a large white border around it, I'm not sure what I am going to do with the border, I may make an invitation out of the whole image as if inviting the viewer to a garden party or skeet shoot.  I'm still working out the coloration and not finding the colors of the textures easy to erase so I may get rid of the textures and try painting the different colors.

I see myself gradually getting more and more into painting which is a very good thing.   Painting can be less cumbersome than trying to add textures (I often add two and three to get the right color and effect) and sometimes taking some of it off.  Textures have their place though.

Right out of the program editor (see below)!  I used a color photo of the real Downton Abbey, Highclere

 

Castle (see above), which I desaturated (made into a black and white image) and then used threshold to turn it into a black and white line image.  There is also an old photo of a real servant standing beside a color photo of a yellow and black Rolls Royce. Believe it or not when you view the servant at 50% he turns out to be a handsome young man with white powdered hair!

My gallery website:  http://suzanne-powers.artistwebsites.com/featured/sherlock-holmes-ii-suzanne-powers.html

The Queen's Guard Sherlocked!

What can I say except that something happens to everyone who watches the BBC Sherlock Holmes series with Benedict Cumberbatch.  He's exceptional (actor that is).  Martin Freeman who plays Dr. Watson is also exceptional along with the rest of the exceptional cast!

Cumberbatch doesn't fool around when it comes to good scripts and working with good people.  He did graduate from Harrow so that has to put you on some kind of higher plane I would think and knowing what is the right path to take with your life.  I saw him some years ago in To The Ends Of The Earth and watched it about twenty times since, all the while raving to my family and friends about how great he and the movie is.  It took my sister a while to come around but she has definitely come full circle and has bought all the Sherlock episodes to date!

All this goodness has everyone intrigued; for one the show doesn't take it for granted our intellect is the size of a pea and two, seems to trust the fact that it's viewers can pretty much figure things out even with the fast talking Sherlock who often sounds like he is speaking in code.

As you can see even the Queen's own Guard has become affected and that pretty much says it all.  It has permeated even her security!

I warned everyone my art was taking a turn, a new direction if you will, almost an about-face, from rustic images of fruit and rusty dinnerware to Pop Culture!  I know it sounds like a bit of a stretch but things happen for a reason and I have been enjoying myself immensely.  This new found direction doesn't mean I will be staying completely away from the other kinds of art, this is just another venue that I can spend as much time or as little as I like and go back and forth between styles.

I am pretty consumed and have been working non stop on projects related to this series and another BBC series.  I never thought I would say this but I am getting visions of  t-shirts dancing in my head and feel the need to respond with the appropriate designs!  With all this "Sherlocking" I too feel a change, an excitement, an infusion-like shot in the arm and  look forward with anticipation to the next project.

To show how into this genre I am, I contacted KanaMusic a distributor of violin bows to ask if I could please use one of their nice images.  They graciously and promptly returned my e-mail with a YES!  You can view the image above without the bow.  I will be posting the image with the bow and another version.

I love digital images, objects can be popped in or taken out with little worry as to how it will affect the whole with no need to start over.  Every separate object in these images are put on a separate layer and can be moved around, even the textures are each on a separate layer. The sky is the limit as to what you can do with a good Photoshop type of editor.

I am just learning and mainly use textures in the layers program with the modes.  I am looking forward to my new paint program, pen and Nik software that specializes in photography color enhancement.  Before I add these darling programs I need to change my Windows7 with a fresh copy.

Not to forget you the viewer, please feel free to comment on your experiences if you have been "Sherlocked!"



I'm not bashful should you like to take a look at my gallery just click here:  http://suzanne-powers.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-queens-guard-sherlocked-suzanne-powers.html