Assassin's Prayer

(Inspired by Ann Stokes)

About 2 years ago I stumbled across an absolutely amazing artist on the Internet named ANN STOKES (www.annstokes.com) while just browsing around for gothic art. While looking through all her amazing work, I came across her work called "GOTHIC CROSS" [link] . I fell in love with this peice. I wanted to actually use it to make a virtual gothic print shirt within SecondLife. I wrote her and asked for permission... sadly ... no response.

Since then I have always said to myself "Some day I would love to see if I could artistically re-create the spirit of her work so that I could have at least something close to this for my own.".

Well until this year, I was not as inspired nor as learned or skilled in the creation of my own Photo Art. Thanks to the inspiration & knowledge from one of my closest friends in SL, this year my new skills, talents with Photoshop, and my new DSLR have improved dramatically. This week I decided to take on this long desired challenge on.

So I had a ton of challenges.

> First Challenge: Ann Stokes had no limits when creating her work - shes drew it all from scratch directly from her mind. Well, I dont have one ounce of drawing skill. So I decided my work will be done primarily through photo manipulation - using models and reources to put this work together.

> Second challenge: Where the hell do I find a willing female model that I have control of posing for me? I got a wife and two teen girls, but alas they wanted no part of helping me out. So I compromised - I will make this a male model (unlike Ann's work). As soon as I agreed to using a male model - the "Creed Assassin" main character came to mind. So I was going to theme this as the ASSASSIN'S PRAYER. In real life I am no young Assassin Creeds - "Goth" looking kinda guy - even with a hood over me. BUT! My SecondLife Avatar is pretty young, hot looking and generally willing to do whatever I tell him. So I found my willing male madel.

> Third Challenge: Where do I get a cape & hood draped assassin costume. Well in SL that is generally pretty easy. BUT lucky me, I won an amazing virtual costume with a hood just like I needed. Just had to touch it up a bit before the shoot. And it also didnt take too much time to find the right pose animation to make my model get on his knees and tilt his head down (I used a GOR Slave animation called "tower").

> Fouth Challenge: BIGGEST CHALLENGE! Try to take a photo of your avatar with his eyes peacefully closed in SL. Believe it or not, there is NO EASY WAY TO CLOSE AN AVATAR'S EYES! After searching Google and asking my fellow creators, the best approach is to try to catch your avatar in the middle of a blink! YUP! Thats right. I sat there for 30 minutes perfecting it and finally I caught a photo of him fully eyes closed in the middle of a blink.

> Fifth Challenge: The praying hands are the highlight of the entire image but ... my avatar has ugly hands and more importantly, there is no way you will get him to perfectly put his ugly hands together for a Prayer pose that would come close to being satisfactory. So, it was time for my own hands to be used as models. Took several shots of myself praying with a black Tshirt over my head so that I could easily crop out the hands. There was a lot of laughing in my household but I got the hand pose I needed.

The rest of the work was not really a challenge. I worked to put all the elements together. I used Black & White for the model and the hands. Added light source directed shadows on the work. Then I took the B&W and created a new PS image where I added the subtle reds on his lips and the blood dripping from his eyes. Thanks to the STOCK ARTIST mentioned below for the blood stock! I surrounded it with black to fade the model into the darkness. Then I finished it off with one of my private textures - a photo of one of my kitchen ceramic tiles. It adds the "dirty beaten" look to the Assassin (not something Ann had for her female model but I had to add this unique aspect because of the theme I was going for versus her).

I am personally quite happy how this turned out and that I was able to see this through to look pretty darn close to the work from Ann that inspired me. Hope you find it enjoyable to look at.



CREDITS & RESOURCES USED:

> Male Model (hooded face): My own SecondLife Avatar that I dressed, posed, photoed [link]
> Praying Hands: My own hands I photographed for this work [link] (private stock)
> Layover Texture: My own private stock of a ceramic tile in my kitchen [link]

> Blood from Eye: Blood Stock #55 from DA: [link]

© 2010 Toysoldier Thor