Fotografei voce na minha ROLLIEFLEX

Hi there!

14 years ago or so, I've started to listen to Brazilian music, and immediately fell in love with the Bossa Nova, and with the unique voice and interpretation of João Gilberto. One of the first songs that I've heard was the classic Desafinado (written by Tom Jobim). I tried to understand the lyrics, back then they were all difficult for me... but one word was really strange and not logical - ROLLIEFLEX. I took a Portuguese dictionary, but it wasn't there... Google or Wikipedia in the late 90's were more like a science fiction... so I had to accept the fact that I won't understand the word.

Later on it was easy to understand and to find out what was ROLLIEFLEX. It was a beautiful German camera, created in the late 20's (it is still being manufactured). You can read about it here.

Anyway, last week a friend who is a photographer, showed me his latest purchase. It was a cute little Rollie from the 70's, I was so surprised, and the whole story with the Bossa Nova came back to me again. I told him about the song and he asked me what was the line about. Well... in the song it says "Fotografei você na minha rolleiflex, revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão" which means I captured you in my Rollieflex, and revealed your enormous ingratitude. After that, I just took a picture with the camera, and quoted the same lyrics. It was kind of a closure :)

For dessert, please listen to this classic and beautiful song - Desafinado

Digital Art - Silhouette Fun

Hi there!

I just love to create silhouettes using vector art, it's fun, easy, relatively fast and it makes me go wild with the background.
Imagine that, a plain object, which easily can be ignored without the background, suddenly looks glamorous and appealing. That's my fun, to think about the background, to make the silhouette pop out in an interesting and beautiful way, to create the right atmosphere.

Here are 3 examples of silhouettes I've created, notice the big difference between the plain silhouette and the complete image with the background.


The Jazz Player
 

When we think about a jazz/saxophone player, we think about a smoky dark club, smooth atmosphere, the 40s-50s. I tried to recreate this atmosphere with a simple background, smooth, blue and sexy. The background really supports the silhouette and gives us the essence of the jazzy old-fashioned ambiance. 

Take a look : 

Karate Fight

Karate or other martial arts like kong fu, always remind me the 70s, the glorious days of Bruce Lee or the classic karate kid movies.  It always look majestic, royal and sometimes exaggerated. I wanted to bring a WOW effect in the background. Something that will make the silhouettes more impressive and will give them a cinematic flare. I've decided to use a dark cherry - crimson color, that brings a very dramatic atmosphere, the silhouettes looks absolutely glorious in that background. To complete the scene, I wrote the word karate in Japanese using some filters.  

Take a look:

After that, I had an idea, to use the red color as the sun in the Japanese flag, and the result was very cool...

Elephant Family

The other day I saw a show on the National Geographic channel. A beautiful and heartwarming scene was shown - an elephant family walking together, holding each other tails. I was so excited - it gave me an idea for a picture. I've created the elephants silhouettes holding each other tails, and was thinking to myself what would be the perfect background. African sun in the background, desert haze and unbearable heat would be the natural environment for this family. 

Take a look: 

You can really feel the difference, can't you? :) A proper background, even simple one, can add the perfect atmosphere, and can give new life to a plain silhouette. 

Hope you enjoyed this post, thank you for visiting!

If you like to see more of my art please visit my Online Store or my Facebook page.