KAREN VERNON and KEN MUENZENMAYER are accomplished artists but both the paintings and the painters are as different from each other as oil and water. Karen is outgoing, gregarious and effervescent. She favours watercolour as her medium of choice and mostly paints flowers, still life and landscapes. Her work is vibrant with colour, and every bold brush stroke shows her zest for life, the beautifying of her world.
By contrast, Ken is introspective and reserved. He uses oils on canvas. His paintings depict the vast Texas prairieland, its breathtaking sunsets and its often-tempestuous skies. Many times, they have a dream-like quality, with muted colours and misty, undefined outlines.
Even though their styles are so different they are bound by their shared love of art.
Oil and Water
I like the concept. For some reason it took me quite a while to realize that there were pictures of them inside the picture and that they were supposed to look like "paintings". My eye couldn't really find something specific to rest on for a while. That doesn't mean it's a bad photo, just that there are some distracting elements and it takes a minute to figure out what's going on. The light on her is great but he appears to be squinting.
He has macular degeneration which causes him to squint and why his work is getting more and more soft and ethereal with a magenta tint. Sadly, seeing the image on a screen doesn't show all the detail as it does on 16 x 20 print. There are lots of little subtle touches that probably are lost on a screen. Thanks for the feed back. Both your time and your insights are appreciated.
Best
Bernard
I'm one of those old farts who doesn't like to do anything in Photoshop I couldn't do in a darkroom. However, to achieve what I wanted to create I knew I was either going to do it as a montage or in Photoshop. I elected to go with Photoshop if for no other reason as it gave me a chance to learn how to use the program more than just, crop, burn and doge. Everything is worked out before hand and is a composition of 4 shots using a static position ie camera on a tripod (I hate using a
tripod usually but in this instance it was essential).
Shot 1 an establishing shot of the location without subjects or props. Shot 2 subjects sitting in the their positions.Shot 3 Shot with easels and blank canvasses. Shot 4 with subjects standing by their easels with props ie brushes, paints etc. Then it was a case of putting all the elements together. However, I texturized the canvases one.to give a water colour painting feel the other an oil painting and I also added a little touch of magenta in the oil painting because Ken's work tends to be a little towards that hue and again, with the water colour just flattened out and brightened the colour a tad. A lot of the time took in post was getting just the right amount of texture and colouring in the painting. If you have any other questions please ask - I am more than happy to share.
Best
Bernard.