Saint Cyricus

One of the more interesting busts, when I visit the Getty Center, in Los Angeles, is the bust of the infant, Saint Cyricus. The story behind this infant and what he went through is pretty gruesome. So, I will spare you the details.

The eyes of this statue are very captivating. I also liked how the light was falling onto his face, especially from the side view. I think the side view is the best angle, because with his eyes looking upward, towards the light, really comes through from this angle. In my opinion, very powerful.

Now, as you can see, I took some alternative routes not only processing the image, but also taking the photograph to begin with. I do this, because taking a straight forward photo of a sculpture is just that. Nothing too exciting about it.

Since the figures in these sculptures come from several 100 years ago, I want to sort of give the feel of that aged look to the photo.

I initially took the photo using a Lensbaby. Then used a toned black-n-white process and texture layers to create the final result that you see. Lots of blending layers were involved as well as scaling back the opacities on these blending layers. The textures I used were some I found on the internet as well as some I take with my camera. I have a folder just for textures and edges.