Friday, October 26, 2012

Medieval Maiden

Today was an extremely fun shoot! Now that Connor has been accepted into a Montessori Nursery program I have slightly more time on my hands and I am able to accept more photography work and artwork. I have slowly been decreasing the amount of commercial work I accept so that I can shift my focus back to my photography and fine art/digital art pursuits.

This shoot took place in Maryland, and well, in all honesty, I didn't get the name of the farm we were at, but if I remember correctly we were in Jefferson, Maryland. The client was Katey Wenner and her Arab/TB cross Carleigh. What a beautiful horse Carleigh is too! She is quite big for being part Arab too and a real sweetheart. She put up with my demands as a photographer quite well, only voiced her opinion a few times.

Initially this shoot was suppose to take place at the civil war ruins at my place, however poor Katey arrived at her barn to get Carleigh loaded and found that the trailer had a flat tire. Instead of cancelling, since storm Sandy is threatening the upcoming days with wind and rain, we moved the shoot to her barn. While I had been looking forward to shooting in the ruins, the locations Katey chose at her place, were AMAZING.

I have more Faerie-Tails sessions coming up and can't wait to share those images! In all honesty, I have so many photos from various sessions to work on and upload that I sometimes wish I had a clone, a robot, or an army to help with the processing :)

I will also be selling outtakes from this session as stock for artists (traditional and digital) from my online store. The online store, now that I have mentioned it, is a work in progress, a work of love and devotion, and one that requires a lot of patience. In due time, in due time, all hard work pays off in the end!

Until Next Time,
LynZ

Here is a little sneak peek if a two images from the session:
Daylight Magic


Faerie-Magic- tinkering and playing around with special effects.

Dusk Version

Cantering Up to the Camera. Was a darker day and normally if I have an assistant with me, I bring tripods, timers, and lighting, diffusers, etc. But this day was just Katey, me, her horse, and a lot of hiking, so I opted for just two cameras and a step ladder and mildly tolerate the slight motion blurs, which play into the concept overall. So I can live with it.
More images from this session will be up shortly on the GEPP Facebook Fan Page!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Caution Wet Pixels

My New Year's resolution for 2013, in terms of my studio business, has started this month! I am making a habit to keep my blogging up to date with the current activities about what is going on in the studio, my artistic pursuits, and my life in general! This has been something fans/friends/followers have been asking me about. The idea was there but the action was on the backbunner, as it took me awhile to learn how to effectively juggle motherhood and the studio.

First line of business, I am completely booked up with commissions for the remainder of this year and have already started booking commissions for 2013. I have been working quietly and consistently on artwork through the years but haven't posted a lot of it online. I just didn't have the time when I became a first time mother and before that, it was seen as a conflict of interest with a previous employer I had.

However, I am back with my art and photography as a full time business and have free reign to do whatever I please with my work, from posting online, to bringing life to my "dark" sided creations once again. I have been doing a lot of conceptual photography work dealing with human form and figure which comes as a relief to me. I have been keeping a lot of that type of work quiet and to myself, suppressed as it was. I have been slowly introducing this body of work into my current works, slowly, so as not to scare people!

Caution, wet pixels....paint? A lot of the work I am doing is digital mixed media pieces and digital paintings. Which has been great, now that I have an active (very active) 17 month old who is INTO EVERYTHING. Not having true wet paint around is a fabulous thing at this stage! My digital mixed media work is typically traditional artwork combined with digital or photography combined with digital work, or all of the aforementioned. Digital painting is painting done just as you would with real painting, only digitally. There are no photographs used as a foundation in a TRUE digital painting.


Work in Progress, a Digital Painting; Started as a pencil sketch and was scanned and painted using Photoshop's wet media no. 9 in various sizes and opacity and a flow set to 75%.


 
I wanted to emphasize TRUE digital painting as there are a load of photographers these days applying textures to photography and labeling that work as a "digital" painting, when in fact by digital art standards employed by digital artists, that is incorrect. A digital painting is a painting done in its entirety from start to finish as a sketch and then painted digitally using Photoshop, Painter, ProCreate, etc.

I am working on video tutorials right now and can't wait to unveil them! Production is taking a little longer than I wanted, but I am a perfectionist and must have EVERYTHING perfect before posting them publicly! They will be worth the wait for sure! 

My real life has been hectic. I have a 16 month old who is into everything and I have very little help. My sitters haven't been able to commit to a schedule or they just don't want to come "way out in the country". I have made the decision to enroll my son in a daycare, which happens to be right up the street from my house (walking distance really). It will be good for socialization and learning in general!

Also, I have been diligently redoing my websites and my fanpages. Currently my Shadow Horse Studios Fanpage is in a state of chaos, as I arrange folders and artwork! Be patient, I am only human, as much as I try to convince myself otherwise ;p

Well, bye bye for now!


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Change Is In The Air

That's right folks, change is in the air...

With my photography having taken on its own identity and grown exponentially over the first year since creating a separate identity for it, I have come to a decision! One that was not made with a heavy heart but a sense of relief.  You can read more about my photography here, GEPP Blog.

What is the decision you ask? I am phasing out all commercial artwork to pursue my own work. It has always been a dream of mine but one I was afraid to make until the birth of my son. I am taking the full plunge back into my fine art. Which means,  I will be creating pieces from my heart, works that I am passionate about, and I will be exhibiting my work a lot more. This means I will also be ablt to accept more commissioned work too! Something I know my collectors/clients will love!

I am interested in the "high" art arena and not the crafty local backyard art and craft shows (though I do participate in a few of those). My long term goal is to pursue the high end galleries and exhibits. It is a reach for now as that is a very hard scene to break into.

I am working on a few bodies of conceptual digital mixed media fine art photography, in addition to a new body of wildlife art and equine art. I am pushing my digital painting techniques to the extreme. Since the birth of my son, I have been quietly experimenting with ideas in relation to the usage of the digital art medium in my studio, looking to develop a style and technique that is all my own- doing something no one else is yet doing!

I have found it too! You will be seeing a whole new "me" coming to life gradually and I look forward to showing you all what I have been diligently working on. It has been an exciting journey.

I will be blogging routinely and keeping everyone informed through my FB. I also have been working on instructional videos for Youtube to share some of my Digital Art based Fine Art Photography in addition to other art based videos.

The entire Shadow Horse Studios site has been revamped, I will be blogging about that experience as well! The shop is nearly up and running there. Loads of artwork to add still, but I do have some photography there too, and resources. I am moving all my resources to the site where they will be available for purchase, so make sure to download the freebies at my website while you can! That is not to say I will not be doing texture/resource giveaways via my FB page anymore, because I certainly will!

Well, that's about it for now!
Until next time...