HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY

Have I told you lately that when it comes to my artwork, I love experiments?

This one was definitely an experiment. Several years ago, I went to the wedding of a friend's daughter. Her wedding was at the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio. While I was there in that lovely garden, during the reception, I snapped some photo's. One that I couldn't resist was of this metal sculpture. When we were leaving the garden that evening, I couldn't help but notice the eerie atmosphere that was created around the sculpture by the darkness and soft moonlight. I wanted to try to capture that. I took my photo into Photoshop and played with some of the tools that you can use. I wanted to try a black background and so I didn't draw this out freehand. I will save that for later. It is probably not as easy to correct mistakes on black background. So I traced the preying mantis and the more important areas of the trees and shrubs. I used Conte pastel colored pencil and Gerneral's Charcoal White. I'm pleased with the outcome, and had a great time doing this.

Preying Mantis in Moonlight
on Somerset Velvet 250gsm, Black
from Legion Paper (purchased sample paper)