Dixon's Forum Posts from Dixon

Setting out to make a bland, generic, kitschy cactus desert scene I wound up with this.    Had a lot of fun putting it together though.

The background sand and sky are spray paint.

The Sun, the rays, and puddles of sunshine are of aluminum foil tape covered with yellow and red automotive taillight lens repair tape.    The Skeleton’s knife blade is of aluminum foil tape, uncovered.    Everything else is plain old plastic electrical tape.

The Moon got a personality too, not like the Giver of Light and Life on the other side (below).    If sharing its very own Green Cheese isn’t giving of oneself, what is?.

Again, the background is spray paint, a lighter layer first, then a darker one with stencils made of Teacher’s stars.    The smaller, round stars are silver spray paint with a clogged sprayer so it came out in gloops.

Here is a close-up of the full image on the outside of the door.

Had a real hard time with this close-up, tried different lights from different angles.    Nothing got all the shiny surfaces to shine all together like in the full images above.    See how the sunshine puddle in the lower left shines on image C but not the others.

Image D is taken in the dark with only the camera flash, and is the only one that shows the Sun’s tongue actually sticks out from the surface, the piece’s only 3-D feature.

My brother said to photograph it outside where the real Sun’s light rays are parallel.    He has an MFA in Film Studies, so I assume he knows about light rays and stuff.

I can’t imagine trying to hold the camera and artpieces at the proper angles out in the real Sun.    You can see how tricky that would be with my camera-holding apparatus if you click    here to see it, then Back Button back to here.    So I decided to try and make a parallel-rays light source out of parabolic mirrors, and am keeping my eye out for some good deals.

He also said it would help to have the camera more than two or three inches from the subject, so I backed it off and used the camera’s Digital Zoom feature for Images E and F.    I think the parabolic mirrors would be a better answer, but time will tell.

Here’s a close-up of the Three Cacti and the Skeleton.

Here is the Horned Skull.

Close-up of the full inside of the door.

In this close-up of the Moon, I encounter similar problems as with the Sun — the nearer the camera the more it interferes with the light sources.    Here, the cleaver blade is uncovered aluminum foil tape, everything else is regular plastic electric tape.

This close-up is of the full framed part in the fuse panel opening.    Here, the Sheriff Star is of the same materials as the puddle of Sunshine — shiny aluminum foil tape covered by yellow turn-signal tape.   The buckle on the cowboy hat and everything else are just regular plastic electrical tape.

Here is a close-up of the Three Cacti.    Better lighting would have helped the Banjo-Player to stand out more visibly, and I am watching for a good deal on some.

The Skeletons are enjoying the desert night.    The Horned Skull is not.