Digital photography has given us many new tools to work with. One of them is the ability to go back to the original film images and "remaster" them. Such was the case with this painting. I created the original back in 2000. Since then, the print began to let loose from the backing, plus the background was too dark by today's standard of quality. So I decided to rebuild the painting.
I didn't want to repaint Aly, since this was the look the client had grown accustomed to these past 11 years. Painting is a VERY fluid and evolving process. I would never be able to reproduce the same look twice. So I photographed Aly in small sections for the absolute best in quality and detail, then stitched them together to make her entire body.
The dark background was a limitation of the film medium back then. So, I rephotographed the same canvas background and flower arrangement, both of which I still have. With a new, fresh image, I can make them as light or dark as I want. I combined those two items and dropped them behind the image of Aly. I could have had even more detail in the background, and in fact on the first version I did. But the client came over to appove the result before going to printing, and wanted it a little deeper. It's important to produce a compromise between what is possible, and what the client is accustomed to and likes. While I like to have a free hand to prduce the look I enjoy, in this case the client is boss.
The whole process took about four full days of work. Cost to the client? Zero.
We want our work to always be a representation of the kind of quality our clients expects from us... whether it was created today, or a decade ago.
The Original...
Remastered version...
Wow! Amazing.
Posted by: Jill | December 24, 2011 at 12:17 PM
Beautiful. What a wonderful concept.
Posted by: Ron | December 24, 2011 at 01:02 PM