Scrapbook Polaroid

[pitbulllady]

More fanart of Wilt and Jordan, back in the old days, shortly after Wilt was created. I tried to get this to look like a faded old Polaroid "Instamatic" snapshot, taped to a page in a scrapbook, the sort a mother would keep over all these years. The locale is Folly Beach, near Charleston, SC, with the historic Morris Island Lighthouse in the background(Morris Island has actually been just about swallowed up by the Atlantic now).



pitbulllady

[antgirl1]

Aww...That is adoreable. So realistic. =]

[Ub3rD4n]

AWWWWWWW............

[Thefishdude]

Aww.....What a touching moment. Good job!

[xxxClaire]

Awwww. That's so cute!

[Lynnie]

Aww, that is the SWEETEST thing I've seen in a long while! I tried drawing something to look like a real photograph once (I drew it in a frame), and it didn't turn out near as good, heh. Way too cool PBL, good job!

[WiltsAKGirl17]

I commented over on DA, too, but I'll say it again-- this is adorable beyond words. There's this whimsy in this that can only be captured in an impromtu snapshot at the beach, so seeing it captured with pencil and paper is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

I. Love. It. <Falls off computer chair in total awe.>

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by WiltsAKGirl17

I commented over on DA, too, but I'll say it again-- this is adorable beyond words. There's this whimsy in this that can only be captured in an impromtu snapshot at the beach, so seeing it captured with pencil and paper is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

I. Love. It. <Falls off computer chair in total awe.>

Well, actually there wasn't much pencil involved, but a lot of computer programming!

Here's how I did it, step by step:

First, I created the backdrop-the ocean, the lighthouse, the sand and most of the rock jetty, and of course, the sky, using a program I have on my computer called Corel Painter ProCreate Classic. It's an old version of Corel Painter(I think they're up to Painter X now, for about the price of a compact car) that works in hand with a Wacom tablet and pen. I love my Wacom, but I digress. Anyway, I used the "Watercolor" selection of the program to give a washed-out, softer effect. I was looking at a photo in an old seventh-grade South Carolina history textbook, which is not in color, so I had to sort of fudge the color from memory.

Next, I printed out the background using a regular printer on a regular sheet of copier/printer paper. NOW is where the pencil comes in; I lightly penciled in sketches of Wilt and Jordan, and a few more rocks, as well as the kite Jordan is flying and the kite strings. Then I cut out a "border" from white construction paper and glued it down on top of the print-out, to give the effect of a border on a Polaroid photo, and using real tape, taped the whole shebang to a sheet of black construction paper to look like the sort of black pages that many photo scrapbooks used to have(maybe they still do, but I haven't seen any for awhile).

Then, I photographed the ensemble with the digital camera, uploaded it back to Corel Painter, and used Painter's digital airbrush feature to color in the figures of Wilt and Jordan, plus the kite and twine, and the extra rocks. I used the same to create the shadows, the footprints, the tern flying in the sky, the scuffs of sand on their feet, and to touch up the colors a bit. You can choose the opacity of color in Painter, so I used a very light opacity to keep the faded look. I resized the thing, since my camera is high resolution and takes huge pictures, and cropped a bit of the edge with Painter, then used the "Pen and Ink" selection to create the writing on the bottom "frame", and used the "smudge" feature to make it look blurred and faded, like handwriting written decades ago. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, really, but I'm quite pleased if I must say so myself, lol!

pitbulllady

[BluebottleFlyer]

Already commented on this on DA, but once again it's a great piece of work, made all the more poignant now that we know that the background of the photo in real life has pretty much vanished.
Now it kind of brings out mixed emotions, looking at it. Happy because it's memories of a happy time and Wilt and Jordan are enjoying themselves, but at the same time sad because it's a moment in time that can never be repeated.

[Imaginary Light]

Aww. That is extremely sweet! They both look so happy