Untitled Portrait by Chipka
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
**Please ZOOM for best quality**
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The view always gets blurry after a few beers, but he’s had precious little tonight. Instead, he swims his way through a sick, crystalline clarity in the hepatic colors of the city at night. Sirens wail in some rearward distance at the onset of some emergency. TAC-sats—like mock stars—gleam overhead: their vigilance timed to the strange, non-circadian rhythms of whatever defense conglomerate has up-link time at this particular hour.
Despite the noise, and the unblinking surveillance from a Heaven usurped from the gods, things are quietly pure.
Music topples from bars—a strange braid of conflicting tunes in a jumble of styles. The bottom beats (though not the sounds) reach him, and he recognizes the prolonged Taiko-drum riff from Emallia Quinne’s latest paean to darker (and more intriguing) musical spirits. She is the goddess of his fawning, musical idolatry, and though he doesn’t hear the tune, he knows it by feel…the way it shimmers through the air like rippled heat from the face of an overheated sidewalk.
The view always gets blurry after a few beers.
But tonight, everything remains clear.
* * *
This is yet another picture of Shaun, one of the regulars at Quest Internet Services. I've taken pictures of him numerous times in the past, and will likely take more in the future. Shaun is a great model. He's friendly to the camera, and mellow enough to put up with bossy photographers. I think, in a way, he is a photographer, though he claims to have never handled a camera beyond the one integral to his cell phone.
At any rate, he has a character's face.
* * *
I took this photo yesterday afternoon and tweaked it in Photoshop. For those with a particularly keen eye, you may recognize the photographic style, as it has been featured in the print ads for the most recent incarnation/reinvention of Star Trek, so in a way...this image of Shaun owes its existence to the desire to create something as dramatic as Captain Kirk as a young (non-William-Shatner) guy, or a Romulan played by that guy whose name I can't remember.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting.
Comments (22)
Amazing portrait, fantastic light and texture!!!
Amazing post-work~ Good work~
Intense portrait; his look seems to say we've been judged and found wanting! Great work, Chip!
This is just stunning, Chip--you've captured something with him that's really deep. WOW!!!
Powerful work, Chip. This is a compelling portrait. I like how you've used the dark to enhance Shaun's expression.
Excellent portrait!
I hadn't seen the posters, so I went and looked, and I see the resemblance. Nicely done! (Don't ask me how I saw the movie in the theater twice and didn't see the posters, but ... there you have it.) Great portrait!
It's really not fair you know. I'm trying to catch-up on getting out some comments and you stop me in my tracks and set me to thinking. The worst of it is, my thoughts have not really coalesced into a properly succinct comment. They are rather like the music in your story, jumbled and not quite there but felt. The image I get of your main character is of being, at least in this moment, a strong, calm and direct presence in a chaotic landscape. I like the imagery of the 'a Heaven usurped from the gods' and 'conflicting tunes' that are felt rather than heard. I also like the repetition and change of the first and last lines. Very intriguing. Great portrait that perfectly reflects the mood of the story!
Oooo..love it a lot .. superb..++5
Compelling! An outstanding portrait, and, as usual, a marvellous 'read'. 'Music topples from bars'....what a great line...it needs an illustration of its own...
gorgeous portrait!!!
Cool shot!!!
Very powerful.
I like the "strong" and "friendly" feelings this man give. Photo is a great piece of mood.
Awesome portrait and great postwork. Love it
Everybody loves to knock William Shatner. That's just the way they made TV in those days. I like how he seems to emerge from the darkness around him like he's some how formed from it. Darkness that takes shape and looks like a material man but who's character still reflects (not reflects depending on your perspective) the darkness from which he is formed. Err... It's like vampires. This is no doubt an old an very experienced one that has had many close scrapes but has so far endured.
Странное ощущение! Имеется выход за рамки фотографии. Факт присутствия.
He does indeed have a 'characters' face, full of intensity that one loves to look at and ponder what he's thinking. Dangerously interesting. And a great treatment. And I like music I can feel, that ripples through the air in a rush of heat. CC
Oooh, creepy! This picture exudes a cold menace, which is pretty funny, because I know this guy and he's one of those friendly, laid back surfer dude types...anything but what looks like a psychopathic killer. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Peter Stormare's laconic, cold-blooded killer in the Cohen Brothers' film, Fargo. The story--as usual--is good, solid stuff but the picture seems more menacing. When I look at this picture, I don't think William Gibson so much as Wes Craven. Nice work!
Beautiful portrait, dear Chip !!! 5***** Hugs Karin:)
Excellent capture and story! I am not much with words when it comes to commenting on images...so I will say I agree with CoreyBlack completely! Fantastic gallery!
Great portrait work. The lighting is fantastic, brings out the features a treat.