Kiwi on Kiwi
Digital Painting, Photoshop, 2005 (Click on image then magnifying glass icon to see at full size)
This is a symbolic self portrait I created as the splash page for my website, and features me with a lobster helmet, holding a couched paintbrush lance with a kiwifruit shield, riding a North Island brown kiwi. There is an escher-inspired pattern of birds in flight on my cape and I am trailing a banner with stars from teh New Zealand flag
This was created entirely in Photoshop, using a Wacom Intuos pressure sensitive graphics tablet, and custom brushes for things like fine hair-like feathers on the kiwi. I scanned in a pencil sketch and worked with numerous layers to overlay textures and effects. The clouds were created using Nagels pastel brushes
Below is a repurposing of teh same core image, showing the Escher cloak with transformation from fish to bird better, and with a portfolio added, textured by overlaying a leather texture layer on top of base gradation of charcoal grey. the NZ All Black fern leaf (of which I am, inordinately, and unaccountably proud) is displayed prominently.
