Roshi Portrait

I'm working on a portrait of Roshi (Robert Aitken).  On his 91st birthday I took a photo of him before lunch.  The lighting in the zendo is very bad and it's almost impossible to get a good shot without artificial light.

I'm taking a class from David Julian and was inspired to do a composite to make a better portrait.  I added a stone background so to give the appearance of a mountain cave.  At his right shoulder is Kwan Yin.  I took a photo of a painting in his residence and manipulated it.  Inscribed in the rock is the Heart Sutra.

Here's a before:

Here's the work in progress:

Comments

[Ginger]

Most wonder-full portrait of Roshi. It's so much more unified than the original. Quan Yin seems to be floating in the clouds amoung the rocks. All our teachers have cloud names.

You may want to contact Andy Thomas for use of the Quan Yin here. Don't know how that works with collages. Keep up the good work!

Aloha,
Ging