:: Winter Challenge ::

Winter Challenge
7" x 15"
Ballpoint Pen
November, 2012

Jessica of `faestock put out a challenge based on one of her "Winter" serries shots. Personally, for me it was much more evocative of fall than winter, but then again I live in the mountains and am used to huge huge piles of snow; for Oz I'm pretty sure she qualifies as "bundled up" lol!
I did this in ballpoint pen; I'm liking this as a medium; it allows me to get a pretty good range of tone and color. I left the background more or less washed out in this to give it a more painterly feel, and not distract as much from the subject.
I'd like to see what the frame shop can do with the matting for this, how closely they can trace the contours of the leaves and such


Does anybody else think she kind of looks like Rachel McAdams in this shot/angle?

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Ug. I'm having a terrible time with actually capturing images lately. Nothing I do can seem to pick up greyscale or subtle shading. I realize that the white balance is totally wonky on this; I plan to re-shoot this under daylight conditions, but as the competition ends tonight/tomorrow, and that's Australian time, I don't want to try my luck and wait! If anybody has any recommendations for a good scanner, I'm all ears. I've been using an HP4800 scanjet, but more than that, I've just been waiting for a sunny day, and taking the image and my Nikon out into the back yard and seeing what I can do with the settings and white balance

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okay, updated, but I still think it comes across as dark; still can't seem to figure out "true" color