Music

Here's another illustration based on one of my San Francisco photos. While walking around the Nob Hill area, I spotted this belly dancer performing for tips. Accompanying her were a couple of men who gave her an exotic rhythm with drums they rested across their knees. Seconds before I depressed the shutter, a breath of wind caught her skirt. Click.

For an expressive photograph, you can't go wrong with a street performer like a dancer or singer. There is an element of rawness and unpolished beauty to these performers which adds a personal touch to their story.

The pose in itself is beautifully fluid, but I accentuated the twist in the torso and the jut of the hip to give it a little extra movement. Like the other color images on this blog, preceding this one, I did a monochromatic painting in acrylics, scanned it into my computer, and gave it adjustments in tone and color. Needless to say, the process is a bit more involved than that. However, I like having the flexibility afforded by Photoshop to try things out, make mistakes, correct problems, explore, and discover something new.

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