Do the Swim

Comments

6 responses to “Do the Swim”

1. 

   Jennifer

   March 10, 2007

   I love this! I love all of the depth/layering/collage feel that you get. I think Gilraen looks much cooler in this painting than in the original photo. Were you listening to Land of a Thousand Dances while working on this? Do you listen to music while you work? I’ve found if I listen to music whether intentionally or not at the beginning of a project, I must listen to the same music until the end.

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2. 

   Idyllopus

   March 10, 2007

   I discovered Artrage and was able to use that for the texturing. It can only do a fairly small image so in the painting are several backgrounds that I painted first in Artrage and then imported to Photoshop where I pieced them together and worked on the rest of it there (the image is about 30 inches wide). It can have a problem with not importing into Photoshop at the same color saturation as in Artrage (seems you lose gamma) and you have to work on that and that can be irksome too. But it’s only $20. (One of these days I’ll get Corel Paint.) I love texture so it’s lots of fun that way but I’ve ended up not using it as much as I’d like because you can only do small images.

   I used to listen to music when I painted but since H.o.p. it’s virtually impossible as he always has something going–but I do when I can, and when I did I usually needed to listen to the same music throughout. When I was working on “Unending Wonders of a Subatomic World” I finally put on the earphones and listened to baroque throughout. With writing however I only do that for a couple of drafts and then won’t listen to any music for intermittent and end drafts so it doesn’t substitute for pacing and mood.

   Anyway, though I wasn’t listening to music while working on the above (H.o.p. had his stuff going) I was yes! thinking of “Land of a Thousand Dances”. I had the “Do the Watusi” line going over and over again in my head. It popped in there when I began working on the painting and stayed with me on constant imaginary replay through to the end. “Do the watusi, do the watusi”. Except she was doing the swim. It was a hell of a lot of fun and I’m so pleased you caught that! I’d love to do a couple of other images based on the same song and may eventually. I imagine them large on the wall, beckoning everyone to dance.

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3. 

   Idyllopus

   March 10, 2007

   P.S. Yeah, I love it that you caught “The Land of a Thousand Dances.” I’m still grinning over that.

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4. 

   Jennifer

   March 10, 2007

   I’d love to see other images based on the song. You know what’s funny? I checked out lyrics, just to make sure I was remembering them correctly, and the swim was not mentioned at all!

   She could easily segue into the Watusi. 🙂

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5. 

   Idyllopus

   March 10, 2007

   I had known when I was working on it that it didn’t mention the swim, though I couldn’t remember most of the lyrics. I kept thinking the Swim should be one of them.

   Great song name, “Land of a Thousand Dances”.

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6. 

   Jennifer

   March 13, 2007

   It dawned on me that I was hearing “Land of a Thousand Dances”, but it was segueing into “Shake a Tail Feather” which does indeed mention the Swim.

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