paintings and photography

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lizzienewell

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I've been taking photos of my models and also of scenery. I put the two together and like the effect. These are trial runs of what I'm going to do more of. I'm also trying painting from the photographs.

After doing well in an art show in a science-fiction convention I decided to get serious about doing art for sf conventions. I'd like to have a combination of models, drawings, photographs, and paintings.
In the last few days I've been trying to figure out the best way to mount paintings. I'm working with watercolor crayon on clayboard.

I want to make my imaginary world believable as if I really saw this ground effect craft flying over the water. I'd like the freshness of painting outside from things that are moving.
 

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lizzienewell

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Here it is.

The folks here were actually taking pictures of whales not flying killer whales as shown in this picture.
I took the photo from the Seward Sealife Center.
The photos that they took of whales probably won't look all that good since they don't have telephoto lenses and you can't see much of whales anyway.
I took this several years ago but was already thinking about modifying the photo to show my science-fiction craft. I thought at the time that I'd just draw the thing in photopaint, but real models look better.

I'm excited about working this way. Building models is a laborous way to creat an image but I think it pays off. I haven't seen any actual models on covers of science-fiction novels. Most of the illustrations are computer generated or else use guache or acrylic paint.

Unfortunately, I probably won't get to do the cover of my novels when they get published. It may be fun though to see how someone else will interprete the craft.

Lizzie
 

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nebeltex

Member
very nice...

...i like that large photo posted. you could even put a ship model there, along the dock.... it is a great way to present models without having to do the whole diorama assembly thing. good results can be achieved in the non-fiction realm as well. "green screening" and old fashioned cut and paste can be done by most, with a little practice. photos of cloud formations as well as landscapes/seascapes come in handy. thanks for sharing. c.b.
 

lizzienewell

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I took a trip on Friday with model and camera along. I think I got some usable shots but haven't had a chance to get them up on the computer and play with them. A few might work without much reworking. I'll post a thumbnail when I get some done.

Lizzie
 

lizzienewell

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Friday, I drove along Turnagain Arm with camera and model. I photographed the scenery and model in the same light and then stitched and montaged the photos together in JASC and Corel-photopaint.

I'm really pleased with how this came out. I'd like to get a bit of the effect of the WIG craft on the water--either some spray or a change in the surface texture but I don't know what it should look like.

I'd watch floatplanes landing but this is the wrong time of year for it. I need to see what happens to the surface of the water right before the floats of the plane hit the surface.

Hm are there any videos of the Spruce Goose in flight?

My butt got cold getting these photos. To get the right angle on the model, I put in on a stand on a snowy rock and got down low. I basically had to sit in the snow.

Lizzie
 

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L

lakedweller

breath taking photos

Hi Lizzie

Just had to tell you how much I enjoy your pictures of Turrnigan Bay.....they are breath taking....and I appreciate you braving the elements....it was well worth it....

The most impressive sight I remember about Alaska was the day I arrived at Port Steward (I thinkthat is what it was called back then) on the USS Jackson.....the day was a crystal clear day with the snow capped moutains rising right out of the water....we got on a train and went thru a tunnel in the side of the mountain and as we came out there was the most beautiful glacier that had a diamond blue tint to it.....even though it was 50 years ago (1955) I can still see the picture in my mind......your photos resurected that memory.....thanks a bunch.

I was in Alaska for only 2 years (was in the USAF at Elmendorf) but it will forever be a place I will remember.....hope to see more of your photos.... you are a good photographer and modeler too.

Best regards from Lake Gaston North Carolina....
Doc
 

Ashrunner

Member
Lizzie...was that stitched photo taken at a roadside park? I have a series of photos I took in 1985 which look just like the mountain line in the background. If I recall, it was about halfway to Portage...but then that was 20 years ago and I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast . . . hehe.

A nice shot from that area would be when the bore tide in moving in or out. I used to love to watch that phenomena.
 

lizzienewell

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You've got the spot and it is a stitch picture.

The road has been widened and modified in the last few years. I often stop at that turnout to watch the bore tide. It takes about four or five hours to move up the arm so during a full or new moon I sometimes take a drive and watch it from different places.

The tide was moving in when I took the picture, but I was probably behind the bore by an hour or so.

For those of you who might not know, a tidal bore is a wave created by the tide as it moves into an estuary. On one side of the wave the water is moving out and on the other side it is all moving in. The produce waves that break for a long long way. The record for surfing distance was set on I believe the Amazon River Bore. The Turnagain Bore isn't the biggest in the world but it's the farthest north and has the best scenery.

The other picture that I did is from the same spot in the summer. You can't tell, but the water swirling in the foreground is the bore. I have some other bore tide pictures but they didn't seem quite right.

I'm hoping to get a good picture of it next summer and put a model skip surfing it or just above it.

One of the neat things is that the gulls and eagles follow the bore. They must be after fish. I of course want to fly with them which is the reason for the design of this craft. I made my model in reaction to the bore.
I've seen people surf it in both kayaks and with surfboards but I don't have guts enough to try it in more than my imagination.

I start my novel with a kid surfing it in his skip(this kind of craft). I had to make the wave a lot bigger but hey it's science-fiction I can do that.

You have a good memory for place in recognizing the turnout. I'm delighted that you recognize it.

Lizzie
 

Ashrunner

Member
Four years at Elmendorf, two from 70-72, then again 83-85, and in those final two years, that was my favorite spot. Several weeks after arriving in Alaska in 83, I met a woman who, on our first date, took me there to hike and watch. We climbed a trail I hope is still there and watched the bore tide either come in or go out...don't remember which way it was going these days. After we went our seperate ways, I would often drive there, climb to that spot and sit. It is beautiful...especially during harsh weather with low clouds and all. Those mountains across the way are as etched in my memory as the volcanos which surround me here.
 

nebeltex

Member
lizzienewell said:
I've been taking photos of my models and also of scenery. I put the two together and like the effect. .

not as scenic as yours but here is my composite. LCA landing craft. 1/72 scale.

since you are into SF, ever thought of doing something spacey? is it difficult to photograph the aurora borealis? cheers, c.b.
 

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lizzienewell

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I haven't tried photographing the Aurora. To see it best a person has to get up at around 2 am and drive out of town to get away from the city lights.

I've made some drawings of space habitates and shuttle craft but haven't tried modeling them. I kind of stay out of space in my writting because to travel to another solar system in a plausable manner requires faster than light travel. This is impossible so sf is a sort of magic trick with the readers attention directed away from the implausability of FTL. I can't see how I could design a plausable ship for a type of travel that's implausable. You can't determine what sort of shape the craft should have. The easiest thing to do is to hide and gloss over the whole problem.

Most deep-space craft come off as implausable. The Enterprize for example has a top and a bottom which doesn't make sense in a zero gravity environment.

I am interested in the interiors of artificial gravity space habitates. If the habitate rotates to produce gravity it creates interesting things with human perception. The horizon line is above instead of below. I'm also interested in how people would cope with the close quarters of the habitate or ship. Also I like speculating on how to discribe direction in such an environment. I think the best way would be in terms of rotation with north, south, east, and west determined by which way the habitate rotates. The direction that the habitate rotates toward is east. Face east and north is on your right. Remember north is a righthand spiral and in such a habitate you are upside down.

Another problem with exteriors of ships for deep space is that it's hard to come up with a good plausable way to look at it from the outside. It doesn't make sense to bring such a ship into or out of a planet's gravity well so the only way that people would see the ships would be through portholes of a shuttle craft. Maybe the shuttle craft wouldn't have portholes.

Hm, I might model a shuttle craft at some time. I'd make something more aircraft like than the Spaceshuttle. I'd want something that could both take off and land on it's own.

Lizzie
 

SteveM

Member
Here's my most complex composite (A + B = C )

Steve
 

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lizzienewell

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Steve,
Those are lots of fun. If you flip the direction of the duck and add a wake to the boat it will look more believable. You can use a copy of the duck wake and make it bigger. The sails are out which means that the boat is moving. It would make more sense for the boat to pass the duck with them both going the same way.

The skipper(is that a self portrait?) and the penguin have me smiling.

Lizzie
 

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