THE ARTIST'S PAGES - other sides of Keith Halonen

GALLERIES —

THE ARTIST'S PAGES - other sides of Keith Halonen

MODEL T Keith wears some of his own art

This T sports one of my favorite designs created for my friend Al Hartman from EarthWings. It's one of my favorites because I contributed to the concept. Eel-lectric guitars swimming through a Megalodon shark jaw. Yeah!

It's thought human beings hunted Megalodon to extinction some 12,000 years ago. Megalodon's jawbones were 6 feet (183 cm) on the horizontal between hinges. It was capable of swallowing a human being whole.

I've been entertaining the thought of adding wings to this website for some of my digital art and a selection of original ink drawings from the 60s through the 80s. Even though I can't resell commercial illustration reproduction rights that conflict with the original client's, I have always contractually reserved all non-conflicting rights of reproduction and full control of the originals. I can hear the wheels turning in my own head! Here's a commissioned animal portrait and a trade illustration.

RICHARD SHUPE VAN KRIEDT I © 1972 © 2000 Keith Halonen
color ink portrait for Dagne Van Kriedt San Francisco, California

PLANE © 1983 Keith Halonen
ink illustration for joiner Dave Lee Guerneville, California

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QUAIL RUN © 2003 Keith Halonen
digital photo 21×7¾ in / 53×20 cm PRICELESS

A photograph taken in July 2003. I carry a camera most everywhere I go but I don't take a lot of photos. Some things strike me as one-shot topic-worthy items, something like a political or social cartoon. Nature nearly always impresses but the local wildlife can go beyond the sensational into cross-species emotional territory. The quail are actually calling one another just outside my studio window as I write this.

...behind HSIAO KUO FENG
© 1974 © 2002 Keith Halonen
SLR double exposure on 35mm film

A double exposure on conventional 35mm film with an old Nikon single lens reflex. The drawing is from my All-Day Coloring Book, 1974, Really Really Really Good Productions, San Mateo, California. After capturing the black and white image on color film, a special button disables the film frame advance mechanism when resetting the shutter release lever. Anything black in the original shot remains available as unexposed film. The next exposure captures the second image in the black areas spared by the first shot. Nowadays, this would be digital photo editing work. Back then, it was just clever forethought.

WOVEN ONA © 1983 Keith Halonen
SLR double exposure on 35mm film

Another in-camera double-exposure. A black and white fabric pattern was taken from a page in the copyright-free Background Patterns, Textures and Tints, 1976, Dover Publications, New York. Only the white portion of the graphic black and white fabric weave pattern was exposed onto the film. Again, the shutter release lever is reset without advancing the film. A second shot, with an additional lens-mounted circle template, captures the image of the model, exposed onto the areas that remained black in the first shot.

LIGIA FADE © 1983 Keith Halonen
SLR double exposure on 35mm film

This one is also an in-camera double-exposure, but this time there's a black card fixed to a jig mounted on the lens. The card is only inches from the lens, while the focus field is farther off near the subject. The card is positioned to block exactly half the lens, dividing it vertically. First the card was set up on the right side so only the left side would be exposed. Because the card is so near, fuzzy focus causes a graduated exposure as light bends around the vertical edge of the black card. After the model steps away from the backdrop, the card is carefully (to avoid moving the camera/tripod) rotated 180° and the second exposure is made. The positioning of the card to intersect the image frame at its centerline is not super-critical, but a reasonable attempt must be made to position it accurately. When the second image overlaps the first, the graduated exposure is moving in the opposite direction and if all has gone well, it should seamlessly overlap the graduated zone on the first image, creating a background pattern that flows across the horizontal field without visible interruption.

(Let Me Change Into) SOMETHING MORE COMFORTABLE
© 1983 Keith Halonen SLR double exposure on 35mm film

Yet one more in-camera double-exposure, my best of genre. Here, the black card was mounted first on the top half of the view frame. After the exposure, the model carefully (to avoid moving it) arose from the chair and I carefully (to avoid moving the camera/tripod) rotated the black card around to block out the bottom half of the frame. Therefore, in this picture, the division is across the horizontal center of the frame. Note that the vertical imagery is seamlessly continuous top to bottom. In the previous example, the card divided left and right sides instead of upper and lower sections.

More pictures to follow as I consider creating a photo gallery. My info pages are back, including my capsule bio. But in strict keeping with Oprah's Book Club tenets, I've rewritten my past a bit. What's the point of having power if you can't abuse it? Master of my own domain!