scratch board fun

knitwit, originally uploaded by avalilly.

So I found a book of illustrations by Virgil Finlay that reminded me how much I enjoyed playing with scratch board back in high school. I thought I'd give it another try and see what I could accomplish with it.

If it isn't hard to tell, this took a very long time. Scratch board is basically a thick paper (usually white) covered in china clay and india ink, which you scratch away to make the image. I use a tool with a tip like these:

I will be selling prints of this, probably in an edition of 50. My test print at the original size of 8.5" x 11" didn't yield enough detail, so I'll probably make them at 11"x14" instead. I just need to find the best place in which to sell them online and also how much to price them after printing costs.

Once that's figured out I'll throw a link up on here, if you happen to be a prospective buyer!

website

Hello all,

So I've been looking to make somewhat of a portfolio website for a while now. I took a new media course in my second year of university that gave me a decent grasp of html, xhtml, and css... but not enough to feel comfortable coding an entire site or having someone else code it for me. I wanted to be able to update it easily whenever I wanted. I ended up coming across this one called 4ormat that's pretty nicely set up. It's still in beta, so it's a bit buggy in the user interface, but from what I can tell, the website is fine.

http://lauracrowell.4ormat.com/

I don't have my own domain name yet, but once I figure out how to do that, I think I can drop the 4ormat from my url. I've got 9 more invites to the site, if you happen to be interested in trying it out just let me know and I'll send you over an invite code.

Anyways, please let me know what you think. There's still a lot more content I'd like to put on it eventually, but I have to wait until they up the image caps. Everyone's on the basic plan until the beta is finished I think.

That's all for now. :)

23/52

the colour noir, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Bit of an impromptu shot this week. While working on the website in the dining room, I noticed the lovely light/shadow combination on the floor happening from the blinds. I figured, why not try and use it somehow. It's probably the fastest shoot I've ever done. The above image is from near the end of the set and the below image is actually the first one I took.

here, originally uploaded by avalilly.

It's more of an outtake, but I kinda like it. The hair spilling through the frame is probably the reason. Sometimes it pays off to be spontainious with these things. I'm still horribly behind in this project, but this made me feel a little better about it. It's definitely more of a "52 portraits done whenever I felt like it sometime in 2010" thing.

Also, my cat parked on my stomach and lay there judging me for the entirety of this shoot.

tumblr

I started a tumblr account: http://avalilly.tumblr.com/

Not terribly sure why... actually, it was mostly to participate in a photojojo pic of the day contest. It sort of required Tumblr usage, but then I decided it's kinda fun to use too since a lot of my flickr contacts use it quite regularly. I'll still use this blog, ofcourse, but I'll have other stuff on there too if you're interested or have an account of your own.

I'd love to add a nice black and white vintage pattern like that to the background of it, but at the moment my CSS knowledge is failing me. I guess I'll have to break out the ol' HTML/CSS book from my new media class years ago.

Also, I am finally on the way to having a nice portfolio website made up. I don't want to link to it just yet because I want to sort out the content a bit more first. It's partially live, so if you're a clever web stalker you may be able to sneak a peak at it, but for now it's secrettt! It's shaping up nicely though, so I'm quite excited for it!

22/52

up, originally uploaded by avalilly.

This is the lovely overgrown garden I mentioned in the previous post that I found while on a bike ride. It looks like this on both sides of the sidewalk. It's fantastic. I'd like to shoot here again sometime, as I didn't try as much as I could have while I was there. The air was so incredibly humid it felt like I was swimming through it. It's uncomfortably difficult to want to shoot photos while MELTING and having the entire world stick to you.

However, I think the weather realized it's now September (WHAT!) and has cooled off substantially since then. I hope these flowers stick around. I'm not really sure what they are... coreopsis maybe? I've only seen yellow ones before. There were so many different colours!

I need to get myself a good photo buddy. I think it would make me much less timid to do outdoor shoots. Not sure if being known as that girl who runs around by herself with camera equipment all over town is a good thing!

Hope everyone is enjoying what's left of summer!