Norman Reedus

Like I told you a few days ago, I joined tumblr. Here is my own page. God, I count 400 entries in only two weeks (most of this re-blogs and not own stuff). It's crazy but so much fun. I also discovered Norman Reedus during this time and tumblr let me fall in love with him. He hit me out of nowhere but it's also so easy because there are so many beautiful pictures of this artists around. It feels like being in a candy shop. Everywhere delicious stuff. No it's more like being in front of the candy shop and looking through the door. Still so much undiscovered work to catch.

In the last days I managed to watch several commercials and music video clips Norman was is. I watched The Walking Dead S1. (Yesterday started S2), single other TV episodes he had guest appearances. I also already watched The Boondock Saints (I didn't really get even when it seems the favorite movie of every Norman fan). Plus I also re-watched Cadillac Records. This is the only Norman movie in my own DVD collection.

I also made a few animations and other artwork yet and yesterday I found finally my first connection to Kathryn. Enjoy...

Norman Reedus made at least three D'Urban commercials in 2010. Check youtube for them! Ron Cobert shoot amazing, unique and very creative pictures. One of the clips ends with Norman touching the hands of a woman.

And here is my Kathryn Erbe connection. Do you remember the last but one scene of Stir of Echoes? Sigh and they both slip to the same side *melt*.

Stir of Echoes Trailer

At the weekend I watched again the amazing UK Criminal Intent opener. I so love the music. But I also found the Stir of Echoes Trailer. I think I never watched it before.

published by SupernaturalEarth

For a longer Stir of Echoes summery and review visit Dustin Putman's homepage.

..."Stir of Echoes" isn't a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but in the thick, atmospheric mood it conjures up, it is a terrifically eerie domestic horror-drama, and is not only effective on a technical level, but is impressive in its portrayal of a struggling working-class family. Kevin Bacon and, especially, Kathryn Erbe (1997's "Dream With the Fishes"), are top-notch and exceedingly believable as a loving married couple who nonetheless have their fair share of problems. After Tom is hypnotized and starts seeing ghastly visions, he is completely taken over by his desire to solve this mystery of the disappearing girl whom he has seen lurking in his house, and instead of Maggie not being understanding, she instead believes what Tom says, and aside from being a little worried by what he is going through, does not try to stop his pursuit. Bacon and Erbe are not traditional Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, and therefore, are easier to relate to and always plausible as a struggling couple who have to work overtime at their jobs just to make ends meet...

Maggie - Tutorial

Go from this…

…to this:

This is my first tutorial. I hope you get what I want to show you. I use Photoshop CS3.
I thank cath from caths_arts for her translation list. I have to use it every time when working with tutorials.

I found this amazing Stir of Echoes Cap a couple of days before. It showed Kathryn Erbe as Maggie Witzky.

01. Open the picture with photoshop.



02. The picture is 800 x 534. Because Maggie’s face/hair line looked a little grainy, I resized to 600 x 401.

03. I also didn’t like the grainy green/yellow background. I took the blur tool in a big size and ran over all the places which bothered me.



04. To lighten the whole picture a little bit: new layer --> New Adjustment Layer --> Brightness/Contrast: Brightness +20

05. Maggie’s mouth caught me from the first moment. To highlight that area even more, I added a new layer and set it to soft light. Took a soft brush (size 12) and a dark red (6d000a). Over-draw the mouth area. Because even on soft light the red was too much, I took the eraser tool, opacity 50% and in the size (60) of the whole mouth. Push it ONE time on the layer.



06. I took these three textures Wallflower 2, Wallflower 4 and Grungy Flowers 4 of aethereality.net for the background. Move them where you like them. I think I resized one of the three, too. Set all three textures to Color Burn 100%.

07. Took the eraser tool and remove the structures over Maggie’s face and hair.

08. To make the little flower in the right corner a little bit more interesting, click again on the mouth layer, took a small brush, the same red or another and set another color focus.



09. I took this grunge flower texture of tiger_tyger and place it in the left down corner and set it to soft light. I erased the most of texture, blurred the edges and only let the flower complete my banner.



10. Took this icon texture of tiger_tyger and blow it to 600 x 401 before you set it with soft light on top of your layers.

11. Use the eraser tool in a big size and remove the last texture over Maggie’s face and whole body.



12. To sharpen Maggie’s face a little, I used the lasso tool, encircled the region and sharpened it (filter --> Sharpen --> Unsharp Mask: 50%; 1,0; 0 ).

13. Last step: the text. The font is called, Bickham Script Pro. I moved the font layer under the texture layers and added Layer Stile --> inner glow --> fee0b0 opacity 75%.


Good Luck and I would love to see your results. Please give credit when using.

Maggie Witzky - 20 in 20

My entry for round 15 of character20in20.
Kathryn Erbe as Maggie Witzky (Stir of Echoes)

With thanks to drakulya, vividtruth, blame, bttrfly_kiss and dreamsofkate for their textures.

10 THEMES

Bright	Brown	Conflict
Epic	Excited
Half Face	Lazy	Mirror
Mysterious	Negative Space

CATEGORY: Chaining

ARTIST'S CHOICE

Plus three variations:

Stir of Echoes

I think you all know that Kathryn played Maggie Witzky in the movie Stir of Echoes in 1999.

Plot: In this supernatural thriller, Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) is a fairly typical working-class guy living in Chicago with his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and his son Jake (Zachary David Cope). One night at a party, Tom gets into a lively discussion with his sister-in-law, Lisa (Illeana Douglas), who believes in psychic communication and the power of hypnosis. He challenges Lisa to hypnotize him, and she plants in him a post-hypnotic suggestion to be more open-minded. But the results aren't quite what Lisa or Tom expected; Tom now senses an air of terrible dread throughout his house and is convinced that evil lurks just around the corner. He also sees the spirit of a girl from the neighborhood who disappeared months ago -- and Jake sees the spirit as well.
Stir of Echoes was based on a novel by Richard Matheson, whose work inspired such disparate films as Somewhere in Time and The Incredible Shrinking Man; it was written and directed by David Koepp, who wrote the screenplays for Jurassic Park and Mission: Impossible.
[Mark Deming, All Movie Guide]

Funnily imdb and wiki both write in their synopsis that Maggie is pregnant. I don't know where this comes from.

Untapdtreasure found two amazing behind the scenes videos I also want to share.

I'm fascinated over and over again from this Maggie Look Test video - amazing expression.

Very interesting, they used a doll for the exercises and not Zachary.

Both videos published from: Kris21108 on youtube.

Kathryn's Tattoo

Kathryn has a tattoo on her right (when you stand behind her) shoulder. You can see the heart and the inside written characters "T + M" (standing for her (ex) husband Terry and her daughter Maeve) in the movie Stir of Echoes very well.



I read sometimes that Kathryn was very amazed because in that movie she played Maggie and Kevin Bacon her husband Tom.

After finding out the tattoo thing, I started to search for hints if also Alex’s body has that tattoo. Every time Alex wore a tank top my brain signalized the TV: show her right shoulder, show her right shoulder.

In the most cases Kathryn’s body art was hidden but sometimes it shined through.

Until now I found the tattoo in seven episodes but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.