Frodo Art Travesty: Frodo in his Study....

[mechtild]

~ detail from "Frodo in His Study"



My "new" Frodo manip is actually a re-do, but a re-do from the ground up....


Recently, looking for a different work, I found a much better copy of the painting I used for my first version of this manip, Portrait of a Young Gentleman Reading (or, "Portrait of a Gentleman in his Study"), by Lorenzo Lotto. Goaded by its clarity, I made my own screencap of the image from FotR (Amon Hen) I had found on an internet gallery and used for the face last year, and re-did the manip.

I credit this to a fan of the manips who liked the first version of this particular Frodo Art Travesty so well, I wondered if I could improve upon it. The version I first did, which she saw, never fully pleased me because it was so small and murky, although it had its own charm. (It can be seen here.) I did not take it down from the Photobucket gallery, however, because it really does look like a different manip. The copy of the painting I made it from is so different (in colour values and in resolution), it makes the finished manip different, and I sort of like them both.

Below is the part of Tolkien's text that inspired me to make this manip in the first place, from the last chapter of The Return of the King, "The Grey Havens"....

One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away.

‘What’s the matter, Mr. Frodo?’ said Sam.

‘I am wounded,’ he answered, ‘wounded; it will never really heal.’

But then he got up, and the turn seemed to pass, and he was quite himself the next day. It was not until afterwards that Sam recalled that the date was October the sixth. Two years before on that day it was dark in the dell under Weathertop.

~ "Portait of a Gentleman in His Study," by Lorenzo Lotto, c. 1527:



~ Mechtild



Frodo Art Travesties Table of LJ Entries page HERE.

Frodo Art Travesties Album HERE.

Comments

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Ariel, I just wanted you to know, you bloody bothersome thing, your critique made me stare at my manip --and stare and stare and stare. Finally I threw up my hands and opened it back up to work on.

I followed your advice to start: I cut off the head again, extended the neck and added more shadow. But the main thing I did was notice that I had inadvertently slightly widened Frodo's cut-out face image when I was colour-correcting it the first time, which made his face ever so slightly distorted - flattened from top to bottom.

I am wondering if that isn't what you saw, in actuality, because I think it made a subtle but strong difference, once I replaced it with a cut-out that was correct -- even without any neck adjustments. I had been thinking the screencap slightly "froggy-looking," though I couldn't think why, looking from a window with the cap open to the finished manip.

See what you think. (The "new" model is in place above.)

[elasg.livejournal.com]

Better. Did you get the copy I sent? I emailed it to you last night right after I told you I would.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

Yes, it improves the picture to actually believable proportions, though you might want to shade the right side of his neck too. Look where the light is coming from on the face and match that on the neck.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good, Ariel! I had doggedly followed the lighting plan on the Lotto's original neck, but you are right: the face of Frodo in the manip had shadows where the original face didn't. I will work on that!

I did not see your manip last night, but I opened it just now. You sent it to my old email address which I never use anymore because of its unreliability when I am returning messages.

My more recent email address is mechtild1@gmail.com. You sent it to the chartermi.net address.

Again, thanks so much!!!!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks so much, Art Travesty Beta!!!!! I just re-did the right side of the neck, plus blending in a tiny bit of light for the larynx area, then re-blending, and adding a few dots for texture and I am soooo much happier with the final product! You are wonderful. If you hadn't made that first criticism, I never would have bothered to fix it but would have remained slightly unhappy with it, that "something" nagging me forever (especially the squatty-featured effect made by the accidental distorting).

*huge smooches*!!!!!!!!

~ Mechtild

[elasg.livejournal.com]

*smoochies back*

I feel a WHOLE lot more comfortable betaing art, something I actually know, than writing. I always feel self-conscious suggesting something having to do with stories because, quite frankly, I was a product of US schools and while I am more literate than most of my fellows, I have no illusions that I am a master of my own language. Drawing, on the other hand, I am better than most (though not all) at and feel confident that, even if you don't take a suggestion, I am not steering you wrong. ;)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Nope, you were RIGHT ON THE MONEY (shading, lengthening, proportioning). *MWAH*!!!!

[whiteling.livejournal.com]

Again, *great* work, Mechtild and great teamwork, Mechtild and Ariel *waves*.
Frodo in Italian Renaissance's attire (dark and sliced) never fails to send me in altered states of ecstasy.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Ah, Whiteling, what a thrill and pleasure to see your non-anonymous, lovely-icon-graced comment! I love the Renaissance, period, Italian and Northern, and the costumes are super. It was just before the clothing got terribly stiff and extreme, as in the Elizabethan period in another half century. The clothes were very formal, but followed a more natural line. They had the ruffed collar, but just the suggestion of it. Not the huge lion clown ruffs to come. Those had their own appeal, but as "fashion art" rather than as clothing to be worn.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Whiteling, I hope you don't mind, but in answer to Este's post below, I had a fit of happiness over your new status and posted a couple of your drawings in a comment box without asking. Let me know if I have the titles wrong and I'll change them.

[whiteling.livejournal.com]

No, of course I don't mind.
Heavens, you are throwing huge confetti!

Thanks for the welcome :-)!