Friday, March 17, 2006

Illustration Friday - Feet

Illustration Friday - Feet

Feet that rise out of the bath water like islands...




The first exhibition that I ever did had a theme of feet. But it was ages ago and I don't currently have any of those images on the computer so I made this instead.




When I was playing with maps for this I was drawn to the lake district because that is where I've done my longest and highest walks. However I redrew the map so much that there isn't much to recognise of it now. If you are planning to go walking there I recommend you buy a proper map and leave this picture at home ;-)

Where were the longest / highest walks you've ever done?

37 comments:

Rebekah said...

Caroline, I LOVE this picture. This may be my favorite thing you've done - and posted.

I walked up the mountain go into cliff dwellings in New Mexico. Not really a long, long walk, but it was filled with great spiritual connectedness with the land and the people who had once inhabited it.

valerie walsh said...

I walk in the State Park that I live in every day and the walk climbs higher as you go. I love the feet in the bath it looks like those feet have walked many colourful miles! Beautiful!

Caroline said...

Rebekah - thank you! I've heard of such cliff dwellings and would love to see them. Sounds wonderful.

Valgalart - thank you. Sounds like you live in a lovely place!

Unknown said...

This is very good indeed! Do more.

Reluctant Nomad said...

Yay! You are back!

isay said...

i got lucky this time around but i cannot do it from my bookmark or comment box.

anyways, lovely effects on this one. my imagination is getting far...and i thought, it would really be cool to see maps in our feet and lead us to where we're going...maybe it's any alien's magic powers?

Janet said...

'like this! We have walking trails through our tree farm. (so I Should be walking more)

Anonymous said...

What a pretty illustration and that beautiful colors, it's splendid!
Very cute!
Good weekend Caroline

carla said...

This is gorgeous...funny you should say "islands" - the water looks like the Caribbean to me, and that's where I probably did my longest and highest walks. I lived in the mountains on the north side of St. Thomas, and after my car broke down, I spent several months walking miles and miles to where I could catch a safari bus to town or miles and miles over another mountain to get to the beach. It was very beautiful then ( over 25 years ago) when it wasn't so developed like it is now. What a great memory! I also love the way your feet look - they remind me of those swirly marbelized papers. So pretty!

carla said...

This is gorgeous...funny you should say "islands" - the water looks like the Caribbean to me, and that's where I probably did my longest and highest walks. I lived in the mountains on the north side of St. Thomas, and after my car broke down, I spent several months walking miles and miles to where I could catch a safari bus to town or miles and miles over another mountain to get to the beach. It was very beautiful then ( over 25 years ago) when it wasn't so developed like it is now. What a great memory! I also love the way your feet look - they remind me of those swirly marbelized papers. So pretty!

Anonymous said...

Really nice and with maps? It has a tied die look.

Lori Witzel said...

Lovely marbling -- real or digi-marbled?

Longest walk: 20 mile fundraiser, and it wore me out.

Highest walk: Down an airplane aisle over the Atlantic en route to Ireland.

Oh, you meant terrestrial?

Hmmm...highest walk: Through a fog of wacky tobaccky at a concert in Austin.

Anonymous said...

this is very well done! Great tecnique.is it fully gigital made? i love the range of colours too...

Anonymous said...

Wow this is so beautiful! I love how it looks like map and also has "walking/hiking" feet. Fantastic! The colors too, wow!
a.

andrea said...

Yay! It's back! Groovy feet and all.

Becky Mairi Farrell said...

Ooh what beautiful feet! I've been so uninspired by this theme, I couldn't imagine how any of us were going to manage it! But these are lovely feet!

Anonymous said...

Great feet Caroline. The colours are fabulous.

Anonymous said...

Great drawing - wonderful colors! One of the longest and highest walks I did was on an Outward Bound expedition in the Colorado Rockies.

Wandering Coyote said...

Caro: Your feet remind me of one of those weather maps that show temperature variation over land masses, purple being coldest and red being warmest, etc. This was cool.

I've done a bit of hiking (as we say in Canada). I've climbed a small mountain near Victoria here called Mount Finlayson. I've also done some other long-ish hikes in other places on the west coast. But my fave was a walk I did with my godparents on that trail along the coast in the Exmoor, starting in Lynton and heading west. We walked all day in a loop that took us...well, I can't remember, now, I was 17. Stunning, though. Also loved the Watersmeet walk in the Lynton/Lynmouth area. Ah, the Exmoor! Home of my heart, I tell you.

Caroline said...

Sorry to have left answering your comments so long. I was having difficulty accessing my blog. I'm amazed at how many of you managed to get through whilst it was still problematic - thank you!

Cosmos - thank you!

Reluctant Nomad - you spoke too soon... ;-)

Isay - thanks for trying again (and again!) I love the idea of the map helping us find out direction maybe that's what the message to myself was... very useful... thanks!

Janet - thanks - you have a tree farm to walk through? Wow!

Carla - Sounds like a fabulous memory even if the result of a car breaking down! I wish I'd realised it would end up looking like marbling - would have been easier than the painstaking redrawing of the lakes that I did!

Janey - thanks. Yes tie dying would have been easier too.... I like that as an idea for an IF....

Lori Witzel - not marbled - hand drawn and then the edges digitally distorted where the map is being washed off in the bath... maybe that didn't quite work as an idea! And thanks for your funny walks! ;-)


Aynaku - thanks - I used a drawing and Painter IX but I spent a lot more time drawing / painting to produce it within that.

Alexa Brett - thank you - I tried several different colour combinations but went for this in the end.

Andrea - thanks! (And I love your current picture!)

Andrea - how to you two do this? Thanks and glad you returned too ;-)

Zinkibaru - thank you - Well I have thought about feet rather more than most as it was the theme for quite a run of pictures I showed (with someone else who also did a whole set of foot-related pictures) - I got into it then despite the oddness of the concept at the time.

Marie - thank you! My feet are loving all this praise - they modelled for the outlines!

Rose - I've done a little walking in the Colorado Rockies too - fabulous place to walk! And thanks.

Wandering Coyote - Ah maybe that's why I ended up going for the red-themed variation... I hadn't thought about it being temperature related.... thanks. I did a quite image search on Mount Finlayson - looks really beautiful. I can understand your love of Exmoor - I like it and Dartmoor too!

steve said...

Very cool. I went for a twenty mile hike along the Appalachain trail in VA/W VA a couple of years back. If only I wore the right undies--couldn't walk right for days after! :[

Caroline said...

Steve - I've heard that what you wear there matters - my husband bought very expensive wicking ones recently...

TheTart said...

Caro... this is incredible... oh my...

I have to tell you what it makes me think of... Jesus's feet.
This would make a beautiful stained glass window in a church.
Or a yoga place! My brain is so commercialized... I just can't help it.

How did you make this?

Smooch,
The Tart

BTW.. my apple tree... original title was: "Just a drawing" ; )

Unknown said...

what a great manipulation you did here Caroline. Love the colors in the background. Not sure how long or high my walks were with my husband who loved to go back packing in the Alleghany Mountains. After a few years i decided it wasn't for me.

Roz Foster said...

Clever idea and what a great abstract splash these feet are making! Wish I could go walking in the Lake District. I did once!

Dave said...

The Wye valley in spring and early summer takes some beating. Its one of my favourites.

Caroline said...

Jody, The Tart - thanks I love stained glass and did make some windows (though not for anywhere other than my own house ;-) I hadn't considered these in that light (no pun intended ;-)... I like the idea...

Toni Kelly - thanks - walking is hard work isn't it!

Roz Foster - thank you - yes its a lovely place - having reminded myself of it I'm wondering when I can visit again...

Davem - well that's now and coming up isn't it! I'll have to see if we can spend some time there this year - thanks for the suggestion.

TXArtcGal said...

This is fascinating! The colors...the shapes...OUTSTANDING! What a great concept!

Tony Sarrecchia said...

I agree with The Tart; the first thing I thought of when I saw this was stained glass. Wonderful job.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Up moutains in Jamaica, two hours one night in Sydney, Australia...and I've walked from town to home, it was a mighty long walk.

This painting with feet reminds me of an Indian movie, Pakeezah, where the man fell in love with a dancer because of her feet.

Zórdís said...

This is so spiritual work. the sakred palce and phsycical colours. Lovely work!

Cream said...

I love the Lakes. Just 2 hours from us!
Highest, longest, hardest, last walk: Up Sutton Bank between Thirsk and Helmsley!
I think I left a slice of my heart there!
THEN I WAS INTO FEET, now I prefer inches on a flat surface!

Todd DeWolf said...

Really cool effect in this illo. Well done.

Reluctant Nomad said...

I leave you the same comment I left at Andrea's: It's enough with the feet already!

Caroline said...

Thanks everyone!

Reluctant Nomad: Okay - but make sure blogger doesn't throw it all away this time please!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! The world you transport us to is one I would love to live in. The colors are incredible!

Wandering Coyote said...

Silly me! I was born and raised in the mountains of BC, so I've actually climbed way higher than Mount Finlayson in my time.