I photographed this incredible animal in 2012.
When I saw it on the screen later it gave me that feeling, the one where I know this image could be something special. However when I tried to work it up, it never reached my expectations. So I buried it away but it sat in the corners of my mind and every year I would get that itch and have to try working it up again. I tried different mediums - drawing it with pencil, shaping it with charcoal and all sorts of digital editing techniques. Every year my photoshop skills were improving but this piece always eluded me.
When I saw it on the screen later it gave me that feeling, the one where I know this image could be something special. However when I tried to work it up, it never reached my expectations. So I buried it away but it sat in the corners of my mind and every year I would get that itch and have to try working it up again. I tried different mediums - drawing it with pencil, shaping it with charcoal and all sorts of digital editing techniques. Every year my photoshop skills were improving but this piece always eluded me.
In November 2018 I sat down at my computer while Clarisse napped in the room next door, this piece beckoned again. I opened it up and this image just flowed out of me, the concept formed effortlessly on my screen and it finally become everything I needed.
My initial concept image lacked the precise photoshop techniques my perfectionist nature demands and so it was hours and hours of tutorials and some 50 hours editing later that this piece was finally crafted into the image you see today.
When it was finished I realised I had created the art I most needed to find.
Grief looks different on everyone, I was not aware of how mine looked on me until I saw this completed image. And so the series After the Dark began, each piece became a piece of me, of my story in, out, lost, through and finally after the dark.
This series brings me such light, such beauty and comfort. Initially i was reluctant to share it, a crippling lack of self confidence has kept me from sharing most of my work in the past but these images transcended that for me.
I hope they find you if you are searching for them, even if you don’t know you need them yet.
Much love
belinda x
belinda x