Illustration Friday: Contained -

"Within Shadows Contained"
digital collage by Mick Mather

The word of the week at Illustration Friday is contained and anyone who's ever been caught out at night when a fog bank rolls in will probably connect with today's post. Just what is our dark lady doing anyway? Beckoning us forth? Warning us away? It's a mystery left for anyone who would like to have a crack at it.

Thursday Challenge: Shiny -

"See Them Glisten"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

Shiny is the theme this week at Thursday Challenge with glisten as one of the sub-themes. As you must know by now, I love that you get more than one idea to connect to and today's post uses the "G"-word. This also happens to be one of the many photographs taken during a fog event that I talk about here in another of my additions to Thursday Challenge. I didn't get as good a close up as I did for tiny but these pinpoints of mist surely glisten as vibrantly as the others. Too, the little white flowers have some shimmer all their own.

Thursday Challenge: Tiny -

"Tiny"
photograph by Mick Mather

As the title of today's post suggests, the theme at Thursday Challenge this week is tiny. While I was out and about last weekend, in the middle of a lifting fog, I discovered hundreds of spider webs coated with the passing mists. In particular, this image of a fir tree is my personal favorite and rife with examples of fog-induced droplets. The needles themselves each have a bead that's about the size of an opalescent pinhead and seem huge when compared to the tiny little pearl necklace strung along the spider web. Sweet!

NEW from The Vignettes -

"Pea Soup"
montage by Mick Mather

Excerpt from The Vignettes: "A Chance Meeting"

I was feeling my way along the foggy street, when suggestions of council rows painted in the green and gray mist gave way to a face! Looming up suddenly, out of the vagueness, there you were. Both of us felt the weight, half terror and half relief, at apparitions transformed by the miracle of recognition.

NEW from The Making Faces Series -

"An Idea Forming"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I was just having some fun, again, with this piece from the Making Faces Series. By the time it was finished there were a near-dozen working proofs and finished images. I was too close to it and had to put it away for a while. Last week, afforded an opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes, I began to see something in the upper left hand corner. A pattern, a hazy beginning or, perhaps, a washed out ending. For those of us who believe that ideas float free in the ether, waiting for someone, anyone, more then one, to wrestle them into the real world, this piece is as close as I can come to illustrating the process. Hence, the title of tonight's image...and I wonder, ought I to snag that little triangle and fiddle a bit more with it? And so, as the sun sinks slowly in the west, our hero can be seen chasing the fog and a dream.