Simple Still Life: Month the Fourth, Part the Second

Simple Still Life: December's:Capture the Light I don't really want to post December's SSL finale (so to speak!) and January's SSL starter photo on the same day, so I'll do this one the day before the deadline. For those who may be joining our current program already in progress (I really watch too much TV, don't I? Don't answer that.), I realize that it's no longer December, but because of the various winter holidays the deadline for December's entry was set for January 6, so I am, in fact a day early. Yay! To refresh your memory, here's the original photo I chose to work with: Bubble Night Light As is usual for me with my SSL exercises I started out playing with the picture in Photoshop Elements. I did several different versions, but these were the two I liked best: This one looks fabric-y to me. Doesn't that background look like it's hand-dyed or perhaps painted? And this one reminds me of a colored chalk drawing. I really like the texture. The day after I did these in Photoshop I decided I needed to do something different because all the PS manipulations were feeling distinctly rut-like to me, no matter how much fun they are. So I got out ye olde sketchbook and my favorite 2B pencil and did a little drawing. I didn't look at the photograph again - either the original or the manipulated versions - before I started because I didn't want to try to reproduce any of them exactly. I wanted to see if I could capture the feel of the thing from memory without stressing over the details. This is the result: I like it. I don't think the drawing captures the quality of light in the same way the photos do, but I still like the lines of it.