Community post
Paint the Town Red
Where does the term "Let's Paint The Town Red" come from?
The expression is American slang meaning to go on a reckless debauch, to be wildly extravagant. Originally, the metaphor applied to bonfires painting the sky or scenery red. An old Irish ballad contains the lines: The beacon hills were painted red/ With many a fire that night. The immediate source of the phrase may be traced to the times when a Mississippi steamboat captain would want to defeat his rival.
Paint her, boys!' he would command his men as they heaped fuel upon the fires at night, casting a red glare upon the surrounding scenery. The phrase was helped into popularity by the fact thatto paint' (ie to paint the nose red) was an old slang term for drinking. [Source: Handybook of Literary Curiosities, by William S Walsh (Lippincott 1892).]
I read this in an article when I was looking for where the term originated from. I wanted to participate in the latest @lmac Challenge #77. I love making collages and am really excited to have to see how others change this base image! When I saw the image produced by @shaka, I thought it was a perfectly pretty, real picture.
But I was itching to jump in and add some unconventional colour to it. A lot of my style is "wildly extravagant" and I love exploring how I can express that in different media. I wanted this image to represent a WIP ( Work in Progress) of something that would be wildly extravagant.
I started by desaturating the base image that gave the feeling of 'unfilled in' canvas. I came across this image on pexels that I thought would be perfect because the top was slightly cut off. I also liked the idea of a couple secretly coming in at night and painting the town in some mad colours.
I felt like the picture needed a paintbucket so I found an image of one and added it to a corner, saturating it to a colour that went with the feel of the image.
I like playing with a lot of texture, so I then added a background colour explosion. It's always hard to say where to stop with collages so I also added some background glitter with these two images, using masks wherever I needed to hide them.
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/07/09/13/36/abstract-5387368_1280.jpg
Source: Pixabay
I considered it for a bit - I could go on, to be honest. But I reckon it's also nice to leave it slightly simple (Yes, this is my idea of simple!). I'm happy with where it is for now!
I used Adobe Photoshop to make this collage - I have a paid subscription.
Replies (12)
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Welcome to the LMAC, great that you found your way here!
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Thanks @lmac! I mentioned in the comments when posting my entry that I did indeed forget to add lmac as a beneficiary. When i went back to edit and make the change, I found that I couldn’t do it. Am I right in understanding that the beneficiary has to be set before publishing the post for the first time? And it’s impossible to change this after publishing? In any case, I had fun with the challenge and hope to be part of the next one :)
Painting the town red makes an interesting collage. Nice work!
Good luck in the contest!
Thank you! I love the peacock in your entry! Such a mad touch!
Everybody makes that mistake at least once. I've even posted in the wrong community. As you say, though, we still have fun!
What an exuberant collage, @manouche! I love the blue, roiling clouds, and the touch of history in your narrative. You obviously had fun, and we have fun as we look at the result of you effort.
Good luck this week in the contest!
The collage is quirky, fun and exquisite.
You’re most welcome and thanks for liking my peacock. :)
Lesson learned!
Thanks @agmoore! My collage style is exactly that - exuberant. I did have fun with this and was working on it for much longer than I should have been. But with nowhere to go at the moment, I guess it’s alright. Thank you for supporting all of my posts and being so encouraging!
Thank you for checking it out @eve66! I had a look at your profile and seems like you are quite the master at collages and artwork. It’s an honour to receive this compliment!