A Picture’s Worth With Mel Harrison (MahoganyTurtle)
A Picture’s Worth… is where we ask mobile photographers that have taken or made, as the case may be, powerful mobile art to explain the processes they took. This includes their initial thoughts as to what they wanted to create, why they wanted to create it, how they created it, including all apps used and what they wanted to convey. We also ask these incredible artists to explain their emotions and how the image projects those feelings.
We have published a few A Picture’s Worth articles recently, if you have missed those – please go here.
In this A Picture’s Worth … today, Mel Harrison (MahoganyTurtle) talks us through her incredible image ‘Nellie With Her Doll’, shown below.
(If you would like to contribute to this section or if you have seen an image that you would like to learn more about, just email [email protected] and we will get it all set up).
Over to you Mel…(foreword by Joanne Carter).
‘Nellie With Her Doll’ – ©Mel Harrison – MahoganyTurtle
‘I have always been a girly girl, into dolls and frills, I sew, I knit, I like high heels and hand bags. So ironically I had 4 boys!
This image of Nellie with her Doll is my inner girl, she is frilly and skipping, she plays with dolls and wears a pretty dress. Ironically she is made from a photo of my youngster boys bedroom, an irony I enjoy immensely. I love that despite being surrounded by males I still retain my inner girly girl. The image is so delicate, it radiates innocence and happiness. It is an image that I connect to on a very personal level, it makes me feel happy and hopeful.
Process
Nellie as I said started with a photo of the makeover to my youngest boys bedroom, it is a simple photo of two armchairs, a side table and a rug. Tiny planet and glaze turned it into shapes that became the parts of Nellie.
Nellie was constructed in Juxtaposer, I carved out her head, body, dress and feet, her hair was made from the same tendril curls that adorn the bottom of her dress. Her doll is a miniature replica of herself cradled gently in her hand. She skips across a hillside background that was created in filtermania a while back and stored in my background folder I used the same tendrils to create a border using the stamp function in juxtaposer.
My next step was pixlr express where I used the filter Antonio at 80%, then I went to icolorama and used the fabulous masking feature to create a scroll in the background.the scroll was made in: Form-Deforms. Then I went to Image blender to blend the scroll into the background.
Finally I used Scratchcam to add a powdered filter that created a soft, washed out finish to the image and was perfect for what I wanted to portray.
Sugar and spice and all things nice. That is what Nellie is made of!’
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
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2 Comments
JQ Gaines
I just love your work, Mel!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Robert Lancaster
Wow Mel, thanks so much for sharing Nellie with us.
She is beautiful.
I would to see of video watching you work and carving these masterpieces.
Thank you again.