Thursday, September 6, 2012

Poses of the Past. . . Inspirational Thursday

With the nostalgic Beauties on my sewingmachine  mind lately, I've been inspired by historical photos.  Not the fancy-smancy kind that have people posed all stiff and important.  No, I'm talking about the kind that capture a bit of the person, a bit of the culture - well a bit of life as it was then. There is a wealth of images found in The Commons at Flickr  - all copyright free and just waiting to inspire your next great piece!

Now, I know what you're thinking - "What in the world would I do with a bunch of old pictures?"

And my answer??  A Lot!

You can take the images and use them just as they are - literally copying the composition of the photo and letting it lead you in your design descisions.

Or. . . .You can just take elements here and there - like the style of dress or the background and use it in your next piece.

Or. .  You can trace the pose of people in the photo and put them in clothes and settings of a totally different time period

Or. . .You can just be inspired by the feelings and emotion of the photo and let it fuel your main idea for your piece.



Actually, the possibilities are endless.

Tip of the Day:
Once you're on the Commons page - Click on an institution icon to the right of the page (hover your mouse over the icon to see the name).  Then click on "Sets" to give you all the different sets in that institution's collection.  This will help you easily pick the subject matter you want to browse.



Well. . . .what are you waiting for . . . .go explore!
 





3 comments:

Deborah OHare said...

I have been on flickr for ages and did not know about this! Thanks for sharing:)

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

Thank you!!! How did you ever find this? I explore lots of nooks and crannies of sites and have never ever seen this!!!

I love it!!!!

glen

Karol Kusmaul said...

Thanks Nina-Marie for this tip! I went and found lots of inspiration for new pieces there. Very cool site!!!!