Thursday, January 8, 2009

Mermaid w Rose Flower Garland


Here is my latest tinted photo. I bought this image about 20 years ago as a postcard. It was garishly tinted and I never liked it.. I decided to give the photo a make over. I turned the image into a black and white. This is done in the saturation section of photoshop. There is a little box that you can check that says colorize and if you check that you can turn the color black and white and then fool with the dials to make it the hue you wish.. then I selected each individual area and copied and pasted it into its own layer and then tinted it in the selective color area.
Voila an old photo with a new look!
A little about the history of the mermaid
Mermaids are reported all over Europe. In Ireland they are called Merrows or Murirruhgachs, in Cornwall, Merrymaids, in the Shetland islands, Sea-trows, while the Germans on the Rhine called them Meerfraus. The Scandanavians called them Navmands and the Russians, Rusalkas. Reports of mermaids go right back to the ancient Greeks and continued right up to the end of the 19th century. There have even been a few in the 20th century. The ancient Greeks called mermaids ‘sea nymphs’ or ‘nereids’ and describe them as simply nude women who swam in the sea, similar to a reported sighing in the 19th century.
There are so many websites online about mermaids.. I even found one here
http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/index.html
about selkies.. those merfolk who are found north of Scotland on the islands of Orkney... such an interesting site too.
Well my photo is a human woman who poses wrapped to the feet in a satin or silk cloth. This was a common postcard and now days valued from $50-$100.
Keep your eyes peeled when visiting the sea shore.. who knows you might see a mermaid or merman..
click the title to go to see this image larger in my store where I am offering it as a valentine card. Then click the magnifier to see it full sized.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cool history on the mermaids. I totally for got the Russian word for them before you mentioned it. It brought back watercolor memories of fairy tales my grandmother used to read me when I was little!

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I am a mother of 2 wonderful girls, grandmother of 4, don't worry you will see photos of them one day! I live in Sedona Arizona, a beautiful place, lots of sun and blue blue skies! I listen to politics and my favorite radio channel is Cinemix. I am the oldest of 11 , I love my kids, my parents and my siblings and my friends!!

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