Esperaré
by Tomás Spanos
1997 -- 2002

Esperaré is Spanish for "I will wait." I originally created the image for a card for my companion Alexandra while we were separated by the Atlantic ocean and US immigration.

The back ground was manipulated in an image editing program. The self-portrait was taken with a timer and exposed for 15 seconds in an otherwise unlit room. The portrait itself is virtually unchanged from the photograph (the photograph is of me, and I am the photographer.) It has been digitally blended only along edges to coexist with the cg background. The "ward" (upper right corner,) is my personal watermark, created in my favorite vector illustration program. It may be too small in the image to read, but the ward is an image of Karnonos, surrounded by divine eggs on which this web project's address has been inscribed; www.paralada.org.

I am torn to speak this all to you; On the one I love the craft and I get easily swept away discussing the way of it. On the other, to dissect a work so thoroughly tends to dispel the magic an image might contain.

In March of 2002 I followed a Will o' the wisp to a web presence dedicated to Dark Elves, or more properly, Drow. I updated and submitted this image for their gallery. The Drowish webmaster of this site had to decline my submission because its subject was a Light Elf.
Shade discrimination, for shame!

I have been inspired. I believe I shall create a new image on the subject of the Drow be it for nothing more than the challenge.