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!’
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.