1263 The morphing of Mr. Cloud

Anvilcloud has some great photographs on his blog, so I thought I'd just borrow one for portrait class. It was this adorable photo of Mr. Cloud with a chickadee (or something) sitting on his head nibbling on a piece of bread crust. I'm taking a portrait class this week, and I tried several photos--one of me, one of my sister, one of Condi Rice, and the bird on a cloud. Mr. Cloud turned out best, so it got transferred to the gesso'd masonite board. Then yesterday we were to paint in the shadows. Up until that point, it was a fairly recognizable Mr. Cloud. He was taped to a pillar and lots of people stopped by to admire. But, I didn't quite get the hang of putting in shadows around the eyes (this is my first try at portraits), and the longer I looked at the drying paint the more he began to morph into this guy

Yup. Put a bird on his head, and I've painted Michael Chertoff, Head of Homeland Security.