I love to write. Really love to write… But sometimes the words just don’t come to me. All right, that’s not true. Words come, but they’re not good words. They’re not beautiful and descriptive and emotive – or even well-rounded. I struggle to put down on paper (or screen, as the case may be) what I can see in my mind or feel in my heart, but the words just don’t flow. Worse, they often seem to mock me.
Kind of like they’re doing right now, actually…
This is the time when I tend to take advantage of one of the inspirational ideas mentioned in my previous post, Awash in Inspiration, but with more of a hands-on approach.
I want to tell you about another side of my creativity: photo-manipulation. For those of you who aren’t sure what that is, it’s exactly what it sounds like – manipulating photos. “Photo-manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception (in contrast to mere enhancement or correction), through analog or digital means.” (Wikipedia) Those techniques may include image layering, alterations to color balance or contrast, applying special effects, airbrushing (digitally), and applying textures. Photo-manipulation is a form of art in which the object(s) are markedly altered or the context completely changed.
So… when the words aren’t working, I shut off my text application and open up Photoshop to turn pictures into an expression of what I’m feeling, into scenes and stories and statements. Sometimes I create an illustration for a place from my writing, and sometimes it ends up being the other way around. Sometimes (more often than not) my artwork has nothing at all to do with my writing. It’s kind of like a mini vacation.
As I mentioned before, I made the sword and the header for my blog and for my Twitter page. I hope you don’t mine if I share a few of my other favorite pictures with you…
They all look much better bigger, so if you care to look at them more closely or see some of my other artworks, you can find me here: Owl in the Mirror.
So what do pictures do for you? Do they give you ideas? What kind do you like? Do you ever make your own?