Having worked as professional photographer early in my career, today I am getting behind the camera only infrequently in my art work, for example as part of mixed media pieces. Like the 'Photodrawings' - where I ink (and sometimes paint) directly onto my own photography which I stage only for the purpose of drawing over it afterwards.
The final artwork: woodcut 'You were born inside my heart' (more info)
And from time to time when I start out on a new work and I just need to get closer to an idea, pose or gesture that is in my head, I enter the creative process with a photo shooting to compose reference images for carving or painting.
For 'You were born inside my heart', I've worked with one of my favorite regular models, Natascha Seebacher, a young fashion designer and dressmaker from Hamburg (Taesh), to get my idea into shape. A shape I then used as a reference for the female figure in this woodcut. altering features along the way that I think match my composition and 'story' for the artwork.
Besides the original reference image Natascha and I created, below are some outtakes from the camera time.
You can follow Natascha's ventures into the fashion designer world here.
© all images Alex Diamond 2013
Click here for more images from the final, three layered woodcut 'You were born inside my heart'
