June 17, 2017
Given that my first novel is, at heart, an adult faery tale, I felt that the book needed at least one drawing on its inside pages. After all, what kind of faery story does not have at least one illustration within its covers? I also wanted to give the story a sense of antiquity so felt that the image should at least give the impression of an olde worlde woodcut. Unfortunately, I am not a particularly adroit artist, to say the least, and so drawing the sketch I needed was out of the question. Fortunately, however, I am in possession of a rather cool lamp that has a very particular quality about it - when direct sunlight hits it from across the room, the metallic tree shapes that surround its shade produces a pretty stunning reflection of an ancient tree upon the living-room wall.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3s912_Cio-ncoy_iDx6fopyaL2cN0q1B19gTfETZLHk8f7hO5pHaPwmCCLokVl9y78yU1CopVfwERhbG_JR7s4KvuhdjQw2Mn0pvkBJDJn0do6Pqm80A6f6kD9ZjwRw7IimKxc0dpcTo/s400/refl1.jpg) |
Reflection from my living-room lamp |
Unable to draw this reflection, I decided to take a photograph of it instead and see if I could make something useful out of it in Photoshop.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWSQizlfPBfbML04hGtt6rFi_3g39w750LN1eJu_QRY1n4JlShEbXP3vM2OKeqdwOi2zE4nDZBJJASDy8VZOFmoo28z1TefTXWitiKvqPsbBOr3qratNW0W5AVPYpiObxvWBRBrePSvo/s400/reflec2.jpg) |
Wall reflection |
Wanting the image to look menacing, I was forced to add a tiny drawing of a silhouetted figure among the branches of the tree. Hopefully my poor drawing skills will be hidden slightly by the tiny nature of the figure.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXL0U4lbZDmZDUi24LVaM_jD-OwepsDhVWcBYMSvNBnfD6aAKydKu99KgxIWO-PWpmJBcXLcxXS9ZrI76d-RyCBd8imLh4zOyNtJ2KZLNHbXvM4tqz22730ay4DkGIvZMkimdqDJAzEVw/s400/c26.jpg) |
1st photoshopped version of reflection |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDF9ZJ3C8nZrRAFRafl94lQnu0equpmzmwqlJF4-_TdsXT_75LdxrgGUKIxNhJCrcfTDgbQx6bt2yrFst9nXw-3Ln5S4SF2H8nGsk25RgmpjYsi44-YZPBov-3BpYB8hqGoyzlm27Jdj0/s400/c27.jpg) |
2nd Photoshopped version of reflection, with drawn-in figure |
I was quite pleased with the resulting picture as it appeared in the finished book:
I enjoyed the process of producing this image and am already looking forward to producing a suitable image for my second novel...