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MelissaFindley — Look Again
Published: 2005-10-24 02:11:39 +0000 UTC; Views: 5936; Favourites: 172; Downloads: 354
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Description
Created with Corel Painter IXI did this for a contest (Secret Places) over at Epilogue (placed 3rd).
Partially inspired by movies like "Labyrinth" and books by Charles DeLint and others.
You'll have to look close if you want to see EVERYTHING that's in this painting. It took forever, because of all the tiny details.
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Comments: 56
This reminds me of when I was little and used to play in my grandma's attic. She found me up there one day dressed up as a princess and standing in front of a mirror very similar to the one pictured here.
This is beautiful work. You have officially been added to my personal heroes list.
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Is this not every young girl's dream? And some women, too.
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OMG! This reminds me sooo much of one of my stories. One of the girls in it finds a mirror in an attic and it transports her to another place.
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wow, lovely work! I was actually going to pass over this but the title caught me, lol.
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cool! when you look close you can see some small footprints at one of the boxes
love it
love all of your work
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I wish favorites could be graded. This would be among the "most fav" of my favorites. I love the concept. I wonder how closely connected these two girls are, if they're even different people. Do they share some kind of memory? If she were to step through that mirror somehow, would she know who she was in that world?
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Ok, I have been coming back to this pic for a long time and I finally noticed those little footprints in the dust. This is great. Thanks again.
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This is so, SO amazing and automatically hits the 
I loved detail-hunting on this one!
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There are faeries in the dollhouse...and all over the place. Lol.
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I remember seeing this on Elfwood ages ago. Loved it then, love it now. You really do have to look a couple times, especially at her reflection. It looks the same, but it's different. ^_^
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one can definately tell a lot went into this. and not just time or talent. i mean real thought and planning. it looks so real.... simply wonderful.
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Very cool... ^_^ Your attention to detail is just...wow... 
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Challenge:
I love this piece. It speaks to me in many ways. I love how you captured the feeling that we may not be alone. There may be things we can't see or don't know about out there living next to us.
I also like the fact there's a story somewhere here. Attics are such wonderful places to find out things and discover things. This piece makes me want to know more about the girl and her family. This picture just seems to be at the beginning of a story.
This was a difficult challenge. There were many pieces I thought about commenting on.
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CHALLENGE:
This image speaks to me for many reasons. First, I love details, and this picture is so detailed that every time I look at it, I find something new (like the castle on the top left). Then, the light is amazing, and realistic, so the piece itself gets more realistic.
It also speaks to me because of the character's expression and how natural and "normal" the piece itself looks, because everyone goes to the attic, every now and then. It's really realistic and so no-fiction or no-fantasy that it gets my eye, as not many people draw/paint something non-fiction or non-fantasy, as it might have less interest for the viewer. But then you have the reflection in the mirror, and it makes us think. What's she really seeing in the mirror? And you find that, even though the image seems quite worldly, it has some fantasy/fiction into it.
I don't think I've +faved this piece before, so
(even though for some reason I can't full view it, so I'm still missing a lot of details)
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CHALLENGE:
I have been watching the gallery for a while. I love your fanart but my favorite piece is this one. I see myself in her. Both the 'is' and 'wants to be' sides. Hidden / peeking goblin and faries aside I was more focused on the woman.
Her face. I look at her face and can almost hear her thoughts... A passing fantasy, a desire to break from the ordinary, the plain... She speaks to me, not the piece itself. Her reflection is even more 'wordy'. She is inviting, almost better off than the original. They are the same yes but you could almost see a different person looking back at the other with and almost "Lets switch" expression.
I wrote a short story that was inspired by the piece and still every so often come back here to look at it. n_n. I see myself a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to art but writting is first and foremost my passion, my life's blood. In the case of this piece I guess you could say "my reflection" ^^ All the little hidden things, the desired things, the fantasy things, dreams, all of it. This picture captivates me in the sense that I very honestly see myself.
You do not have to feature one of my pieces. I'm somewhat shy on DA and thought that perhaps this piece of all deserved my attention a little more... Publicly. As you can tell, I like to horde things... ^^
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CHALLENGE:
Where do I begin with describing this painting. There is simply something in it that stirs up memories from long ago when I was a child. The admosphere is peaceful. Perhaps that is simply the deception because you notice something is not quite right when you glance at the mirror, the image of the girl is altered. As a child, I always dreamed of being something other than I was, a fairy or a princes, the stereotypical little-girl fantasies. I dreamed of finding some portal or link to somewhere else. In the picture, I view the mirror as this link. I relate to the girl and her sense of curiousity. The mirror appears to be an object that can pierce the surface of a person and reflect back their true nature, as it is doing with the girl. The lighting and the mood of the attic reminds me of when I used to be a child and go digging around in my grandparents dusty basement for treasures and old toys. Like the unicorn and the hat in the picture, the items I found in that basement weren't put there to be discarded but rather to be lovingly saved for the sake of sentimentality, the memory. This picture is my favorite of all of yours because it speaks to me on multiple levels. The timelessness of the picture is remarkable. Plus, I simply love the fact that I discover something new every time I look at this picture. This is the first time I found what I think are fairies/goblins up by the toy castle.
P.S. You don't have to feature one of my pictures. I simply wanted to do this challenge for the sake of doing it. I love analyzing pictures and stories, perhaps because I am a writer by nature. My drawings are not very good and only up at a friend's urging.
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CHALLENGE
I like this one a lot. The first time I saw it at EW it touched me. Even when your technique has incredibly improved, I liked the feeling of this piece. How the subtle details tell a story. The girl in the mirror looks just like the girl in the atic at first sight, but if you look carefully you see the pricess, the tiara, the dress. you find the magic in it.
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CHALLENGE:
I really like the mood in this pic. I think it has much to do with the background, all the boxes, the toys. And the lighting makes this attic seem kind of secret. The place where the children played. The mirror is very interesting. It looks as though the woman came in to the room, and randomly looked into it. Then she sees herself as a princesse or something. It really speaks to me, because I think you must allow yourself to dream, and to be a child. I can't really figure out the look on her face though. But I like it, it fits the mood of the pic. And I like that she's not posing.
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I've found 3 goblins, yay!
I love it :]
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wow! thats such a cool idea and a great picture!
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I adore this... absolute favourite of yours. I smiled everytime I found a little hidden fairy
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well... this is a little late... [I hope you can forgive me 
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I've never heard of Charles DeLint.. perhaps I should look his work up because I'm a diehard fan of the Labyrinth and still remember watching its first ever showing on TV in the UK... *swoons*
And I love this pic, the pose is much better than you made it out to be 
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Mind? Oh, not at all! Thank you.
And I've recently really started to get more into DeLint's work. I've read some of his stuff in the past, but it was only recently that I realized how closely it ties into some of my favorite ideas about Faerie.
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Just fantastic! Are you a Charles De Lint fan? If so, exellect taste.
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Actually, I just started reading "Tapping the Dreaming Tree." I'd read a couple of his things before, but I find I'm becoming more of a fan now.
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My favorite is Someplace to be Flying. It's all about the first ones. It has mad Raven, Fox and Coyote action. RAWK.
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this is also my favourite picture of you on elfwood. Love all the little fairies everywhere and the slight changes in the mirror.
Very inspiring piece, reminds me of when I was little. When you could make everything real and existing through makebelief.
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This is very pretty! I like the colors and the old style traditional look.
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Thanks!
I like your signature quote.
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awww....if this is 3rd, I can't imagine what 1st and 2nd were!
You're right, a quick glance at this picture doesn't serve justice. You put in so much detail to the boxes, ceiling, hat, everything. How long did it take you to do this picture???
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This is such a detailed picture. I love it! You have a beautiful way of capturing images. I love the mirror image! This painting just makes my thoughts run wild.
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Aww, there are fairies hiding in the attic! Lovely, I especially like the very similar clothing, it makes you have to look twice to notice the then obvious differences
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There are LOTS of fairies hiding in the attic. There's also a few goblins peeking out of various nooks and crevices.
And some fairy tracks right in front of your nose.
I really wanted a painting that you would look at once and go "oh that's pretty, wait..." Then look at it a second time and say "Oh, cool, check out the mirror, I wonder what else..." and then look at a third and fourth and fifth time, trying to find all the little details.
I figured that that's what the girl would do, in the painting.
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It's tricky. You have to use layers very, very carefully. And you have to resist the temptation to use light flares, and just use paint. Lots of white, and then more white, and some white-yellows with more white...
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Definietly sounds like a tedious process. But, it looks worth the effort.
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Awwww, the little fearies are really cute. I hope they find a nice bed in the doll house.
I wished I had a mirror like that.
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Excellent details in this, and I love the tones and contrasts. The clarity of this composition, along with the lines and light are amazing. The symbolism, childhood to adulthood, the magical feeling, all add to this beautiful work.
~~BookDiva
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Thank you very much. I put a lot of thought into the composition of this piece, as well as into the various details. I think this painting took me longer than just about anything else in my gallery (with the possible exception of Sunshine and Shadow), and I'm very glad that the work that went into it is appreciated.
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You are welcome.
Did you see your piece featured in the new DeviantlyArtistic blog?? [link]
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No, I didn't. Thank you for letting me know!
I feel so cool.
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