Proverbs and Idioms – Coming Out Of The Woodwork

At the gentle kick in the rump from Don Giannatti, my friend and teacher over at Project 52, I am starting a personal project on Proverbs and Idioms. The idea is to take some common phrases — Coming out of the woodwork, Nest egg, When in Rome, do as the Romans do, etc. — and bring them into an image. Some will work, others maybe not so much, but that’s the joy of being a photographer – lots of chances to stretch.

This first one, Coming Out Of The Woodwork, turned out to be a lot more disturbing than I would have thought. But, I can’t seem to stop looking at it. It’s a proof of concept image for me, in that I had this picture strongly in my head of a face pushing through a wood panel into the room. I’ve been watching too many movies, I suppose. I then saw a similar image elsewhere on the web as an inspiration and impetus, so I decided to try my hand at this kind of fantastical idea as part of this personal project.

Coming-Out-Of-The-Woodwork-(1500)

I’ll show you how I did it, after the jump.

You might remember me talking about doing some portraits back in January of an actor and his wife. She was my main subject. The wood grain is my dining room table. After that, it’s all layer masks and painting.

Coming-Out-Of-The-Woodwork-PARTS-(900)

I hope you enjoy this series. It should be an interesting journey.