PictureBook – Strange Remains – By Benamon Tame

‘Strange remains – Kelpie’ – ©Benamon Tame

Kelpie started his life as Chance, a carousel horse. Augustus Thorn, one of the young masters took a liking to it and after several years of asking it was bought for him and mounted on wheels. The two were inseparable until one fateful day. The family was on a picnic and Augustus was riding Chance when the carriage came undone and the two of them were flung into the lake. Chance swiftly sank into the dark waters, his iron body taking him down like a shot pheasant. Augustus could not swim and clung on, fearful of his own life but also of losing Chance. When they pulled the two of them from the bottom of the lake Augustus was still holding on to the neck of Chance, both their skin cold as winter.

They buried the young master, but his father could not bear to see the horse thrown away so kept it in storage. The horse was moved into the Toy Room before it was closed and when he awoke Chance became Kelpie.

Kelpie’s first memory was of Augustus face and the cold darkness that had enveloped them both. Even amid the wonder and celebrations of the new Toy Room, the cold remained and would not let go. Over time Kelpie found it harder and harder to mix with the other toys and the time spent on his own grew longer and longer. Caught up in his own memories, Kelpie started to become aware of another , the edges of a breathing and a shape stepping out from a half forgotten day. In life the horse and his boy would not be separated and death could not either.

Kelpie sits with the shade of the young master and in their eyes they are riding together.

‘Strange Remains. Typewriter remix’ – ©Benamon Tame

Kelpie is one of the casualties of the Toy Room; his new life twisted and caught up in the memory of what he was. The bond between him and Augustus has endured; preferring to remain locked in a perfect memory rather than face an uncertain future apart. Beyond kelpie, only Babel and Nephalim are aware of the spirit of Augustus, Nephalim is too caught up in her own misery and Babel is wary and has left them alone until he can find a way to use them.

The name Kelpie comes from Celtic mythology, a Kelpie is a Scottish faere of the UnSeelie Court. Solitary creatures, the Kelpie were water spirits who lived by lakes or streams and would appear as a young horse to lonely or lost travellers and when mounted would dive into the water to give then a dunking or drown and devour them.

In traditional imagery, the Kelpie would be a black or white horse often with weeds hanging from its mane or appear as a horse with a fish’s lower body.

When I originally came up with the idea for Kelpie it was just as a broken hobby or carousel horse but as I worked on the piece and started thinking about the back story of how it became broken the account of the drowning came to me. The story ties in with the legend of the Kelpie but gives it a more tragic twist in keeping with the Lost Toy Room. For the photograph of the young masters, a search on Flickr came up with the perfect portrait ( almost too perfect considering with the picture I had in my head!) and after contacting the owner was able to use it ( with some relief!) to create the ghost. I also altered the original to add Kelpie into the boys history.

‘Augustus Thorn. Viscount Mourn’ – ©Benamon Tame

In creating the image of Kelpie I started out with the playground horse and changed the background using Juxtaposer. I also edited the image using Juxtaposer and Retouch to removed the hand and feet poles, spring and separated the front legs. I then used one of the Iris Photo Suite Filters to give the skin a more aged off white look and blended it in with the original.

‘k1’ – ©Benamon Tame

I added more grunge using Iris Photo suite and ScratchCam and then used a yellow Gel filter from Pictureshow before blending it back into the original to give me the yellow trim on the body.

‘k2’ – ©Benamon Tame

I then added the image of the boy I had screen capped from Flickr and blended it in using Blender and then using Snapseed I added some more grunge and fine adjustment. I then used Pictureshow to add vignette.

‘k3’ – ©Benamon Tame

For the portrait of Augustus I used Pictureshow to flip the image of Kelpie and then blended it into the picture of the Victorian boy using Blender. I then used The Daguerreotype filter in Alt Photo to finish it off.

Apps used Juxtaposer, Blender, Iris Photo Suite, Alt Photo, Lo-Mob, Pictureshow, Phonto, Photo Editor Fotolr , Labelbox, Scratchcam, Snapseed

Portrait of the Victorian Boy used with kind permission from sctatepdx on Flickr.