TITLE: Carson
NAME: Jim Charter
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: jrcsurvey@aol.com
TOPIC: loneliness
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: carson.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    POVray

TOOLS USED: 
    Maya, Photoshop, UVMapper, 3dwin4, PlantStudio

RENDER TIME: 
    34 m

HARDWARE USED: 
    Athlon 650, 512ram

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

In 1940 Carson McCullers was only twenty-three when she published her first
novel, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter".  She became an overnight literary
sensation.  The novel, set in a southern mill town, explores the lives of
several town inhabitants who revolve around a deaf-mute with whom each imagines
they share a special relationship. The novel "...takes us on shattering voyages
into the depths of the spiritual isolation that underlies the human
condition."

As an approach to the topic of "loneliness", I have chosen to depict Carson as
she appears in a photograph by Cartier-Bresson taken in 1946.  I am attempting
to recognize  loneliness in several ways. First there is the external evidence
of loneliness in McCullers' creative achievement. Then there is the question of
the makeup of such a writer. Must one be lonely to write about loneliness? 
Finally there is the process of portraiture itself, careful portrayal that
tries to bridge the isolation that separates artist and subject.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

The bust was modelled from scratch in Maya.  Standard polygonal modeling
techniques were used in a depictional process analogous to sculpting.  The body
was posed in Poser then imported to Maya.  The clothing was then  modeled from
polygons.  The figure was imported to POVray via 3dwin4.  Image maps for the
hair and skin were created with UVMapper then edited in Photoshop.  Procedural
textures are applied to the clothing.  The surrounding plants were created in
PlantStudio.

