Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Jarred Octopi - 3Muse Jar Challenge


I don't know what these two sinister octopi are up to, but it can't be good.

Don't ask me how we arrived here as I am not quite certain myself.

I started off with an image of a Victorian girl in a yellow floral field with a wide blue sky.  My intention was to give her a nice balloon, maybe a poodle head or an elephant head.  Harmless, easy fun.

After I cleaned up the black and white image and then painted in some pretty colors, I realized she wasn't right for my balloon girl so I saved the psd file and found another Victorian girl to walk my surreal balloons.

Three Muses posted a jar challenge last week so I opened up my older saved image to play with.  Sometimes I think we have a goal in mind and other times the very vaguest of ideas.

To begin with, I put her into a jar, thinking maybe Alice in Wonderland?  Maybe I should add a rabbit?  Then I thought that she could be one of many jars on a shelf....  I decided that instead she would going somewhere so I added a cart.  Where to go next?

I wasn't sure so I saved again and left the project for another day.

While scrolling through the huge piles of images I have on my pc, I noticed a particular vintage image of an octopus. ( If you follow me at all, you might notice that I seem to have a weakness for octopi.  There is just something so intriguingly alien about them).  I noticed that this particular octopus would be perfect for the top of the jar.

Now, I had a little girl in a jar, on a cart, with an octopus on top in the middle of a yellow floral field.  Clearly, the cart wasn't going anywhere and looked out of place in a floral meadow.

I changed out the ground to a more vintage cobblestone.  I added some columns to give it a sense of an urban landscape and decided that it needed a wall.  Finally, I realized that the octopus needed a sea to escape too and that the cart needed to be pulled by something so....

Here we are.

I really think that they are friendly octopi.  Really!  They are probably just bringing a misplaced child home to her family....



8 comments:

  1. Oh this is really sweet and smart idea For jar Challenge. You sure had your thinking cap to take on a flip of what you wanted to do today for sure in the challenge. You did grea, great with her in the jar.

    I love it. Plus the Octopus's. I better get mine up. Wow it is this time for the challenge. Time flies.

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  2. This is sinister and yet so beautiful. I am afraid of the octopii and the little girl seems so lonely!Lovely work, my friend!

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  3. It is absolutely amazing where our muse leads us if we give her free rein and, of course, let her simmer overnight now and then! This is quirky and fun! Well done.

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  4. I can't stand octopi (not that I even met one) but I sure do like your art!

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  5. I love your way of thinking when preparing your art. Sometimes it ends so different to what you first thought.
    It ended up as a fabulous story piece dear Sim! xx

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  6. That's really cute~ I thought about doing a mermaid theme, but you nailed the oceanic look and feel!!

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  7. I absolutely LOVED the journey you went on to arrive at this very original and intriguing bottled cutie. Your Muse has surely been at work here. Never care how it came about, Lou, only know that this came directly from your he(art). Bravo.

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