The ask here was to include some hand-drawn figures in a photographic scene.
I decided to use my kitchen sink as the basis for a swimming pool scene. This gave me the opportunity to explore reflections on water, reflections on flat and curved surfaces and the distortion of objects under water.
My main digital “tool” was PowerPoint.
I arranged melamine sponges as seating for my swimmers and upturned storage canisters as viewing platforms, for additional height. I also added some suitably sized plastic ladders to allow them in and out of the water!
The water in the original photo was perfectly still (too difficult to agitate the surface in the just the right way to photograph) so I added some wave-like distortion. I then added a surface texture derived from pictures of swimming pools on-line. I used the same kind of distortion to create the reflections of the figures on the water. I used a subtly different type of distortion for the portions of the swimmers under water.
To get the reflections in the kettle right I had to draw alternative versions of the figures from the relevant angle. The reflections on the flat surfaces were actually the most difficult to get right. I had thought I could get away with upside-down versions of the originals but given everything is being viewed from above, I soon realised that I had to draw versions of these figures as though viewed from below. To assist me with all this, I used rotatable stock 3d figures available from within PowerPoint. And then there were the shadows to contend with.
I enjoyed doing this – lots of little problems to grapple with and solve. The end result is pretty much what I set out to achieve. I would have liked more figures, more of a busy, crowded vibe but not enough time.