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Dancing Maiden

Grok AI image of a young maiden dancing

Had a lot of fun just being creative with this one. First ran a Grok AI Image Generator character using the prompt “create vector black and white full length sketch of a young lady dancing gracefully” to get the pretty maiden dancing. Then decided to put her in a free file called Scribble Portrait Effect by Deeezy. Also downloaded Deal Jumbo’s 500 Free Photoshop Brushes and added a couple to the image along with the scribble border (use Free Transform to get the brush stroke to fit the image). An old Melissa Gallo impasto texture was added at the bottom. After making all the changes, put a stamped image into an old filter by Topaz called ReStyle to get the pretty frozen look. Added in some snow and free text also from Deeezy is Fladeo inline grunge. That was it!….Digital Lady Syd

03/06/2025 | Categories: AI, Borders and Frames, Just Being Creative, Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Guarding the House

Black and white image of a Viking Statue at Epcot

This rather boring and cluttered looking image of this Viking Soldier at Norway Pavilion in Epcot Center in Disney World definitely looks more interesting as a black and white. Now that Lightroom/ACR can do so much, it is easy to isolate the subject to stand out. For a good explanation on how to do this, check Serge Ramelli’s YouTube video called Do Black and White in Lightroom like a Pro. In Photoshop Topaz Sharpen was used and a little dodge and burning to get the final result. Very simple workflow and easy to do!….Digital Lady Syd

02/23/2025 | Categories: Lightroom, Photoshop Filters | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Contemplating Life

Digital drawing and painting of a lad

Still using the Chalk Brush to paint. And Mark English does always inspire me even though my drawing does not look like his work. This image used a Melissa Gallo Pastel Texture for the background. A Pattern Fill Adjustment Layer was applied to create the shirt patterning. My old version of Viveza 2 was added to pop the colors (still my favorite overall filter). PS’s Camera Raw Filter was used to brighten up his face. Enjoying making these little portrait images!….Digital Lady Syd

02/07/2025 | Categories: Photoshop Filters, Textures | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Looking Forward

Digital drawing and painting of a portrait of young lady look sideways

No AI – just drawing and painting. Another Mark English inspired image. Love using a Chalk Brush to paint these little portrait images. This one used the same brushes as in my short Tidbits Blog called How I Am Feeling ATM. Used one of my older Melissa Gallo textures – she used to sell the most beautiful textures and this is one of them. The netting and detail on the dress are all brushes by Jessica Johnson (need to get her E-mail as she gives away some really fun brushes). And to get this nice bright color feel, a little tip I learned using the Photo Filter Adjustment Layer. Try setting to Warming Filter 85 to start with and a Density of 85 – change layer blend mode to Multiply and reduce the layer opacity to taste. Instead for this image, the Filter was set to Red, Density to 52 with Preserve Luminosity on, Linear Burn blend mode, and 48% opacity. Can really adjust as you wish! ….. Digital Lady Syd

01/31/2025 | Categories: Just Being Creative, Photoshop Filters, Photoshop Painting, Textures | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Flats in Minsk

Image of various types of flats in Minsk, Belarus

This older image had a big tree trunk in the middle of it. Now that Photoshop has improved so much, it was easily removed and the buildings were blended together beautifully. I actually did this image with pastel oranges and yellows and a bright blue sky which looked pretty good – this is how the original appeared. But I decided to give it a more industrial look using the now defunct filters Lucis Pro and Topaz ReStyle’s Rum Purple preset. Did a Sky Replacement using the PS Night Skies Package1-001 by Clifford Mervil. Added a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer using On1 Moody Clouds preset (if you own On1, you probably have this one – they do work in PS). Otherwise lots of clean up. I love the fact that unusable images from a while back can now be saved! ….Digital Lady Syd

01/19/2025 | Categories: Photoshop Tools | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

My Bubble Office with my Creative Assistant

Adobe Firefly AI image of a workspace

Yes Sophie, my sweet tailless feline, has come to my rescue this time and suggested we create this whimsical office that we both would love as a workspace. Note, she still can’t keep her eyes off the birds! So how was this image created? Using the Photoshop Beta version, an image was created with this text prompt “Office space in an office with windows high up in a building​” using Special Effects Sketch and Watercolor. The variations that did not work were deleted keeping just a similar version as above. On a duplicated Smart Object Layer, the Parametric Filter (which are only available in Beta at the moment) Spherify was selected (set to Medium, Close Up, Size 1, Image Scale X:2.69 and Y3, Sphere Scale X:1.9 and Y:1.18, and Background Color White). On separate layers lots of clean up was done. Put some of my cartoon images on the computer screens. Sophie’s image is from a generic cat picture placed in Topaz Studio 2 – used the Impression filter to give her a painterly look. To get the soft sunny background effect, the cleaned up image was taken into Anthropics Smart Photo Editor and settings called Beach by InoculateIT were used. The final step was to add a few birds into the sky with a brush Bert Monroy teaches how to make. This was a lot of fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd

01/05/2025 | Categories: AI, Photoshop Filters, Topaz Studio | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Holiday Card

Merry Christmas to everyone – hope this Holiday brings you much good cheer! I enjoyed making this candle card – pretty simple and lots of fun. Basically ran from the Contextural Task Bar a prompt saying “Lit Yellow candle in the middle of the image with no decorations around it” – Cinematic and Cartoon Effects were check. Took 4 Variation runs to get the one I liked, but finally did. To get the pretty greenery, just followed Jessica Johnson’s Behance video called Creating a Stylized Holiday Holly Illustration in Photoshop & New Brushes. By using a simple Pointed Arrow as a brush tip, many different kinds of fern-like greenery can be created. Most of them were Pattern Stamp brushes with different color swatch patterns used to create the interesting colors in the branches. Mixer used to paint the berries and a little gold dazzle using a gold layer style. She has lots of info on how to do this on her website. I found it was a lot of fun to create this card and make some new brushes. Happy Holiday!…..Digital Lady Syd

12/24/2024 | Categories: AI, Generative AI, Just Being Creative | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Believe!

Image of a Believe Santa Christmas Ornament

Just enjoyed doing Christmas Cards this year. This ornament is one I bought years ago at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and I have always loved it! Thought I would share. The image was not real sharp, but I used an older version of Topaz Sharpen AI and it still does a fantastic job! Used an Iridescent Pattern Stamp Brush from Jessica Johnson (she is a Photoshop Pattern Stamp Guru!) and a silver glitter pattern from Chris Spooner ages ago to create the garland. (The patterns can easily be made by following my Fun Photoshop How to Create a Glitter Texture blog from a while ago.) Added some more greenery around Santa using the brushes made by following Jessica Johnson’s Behance video called Creating a Stylized Holiday Holly Illustration in Photoshop & New Brushes. The Merry Christmas font used is called Baroque Script. That was about it! Happy Holidays to everyone!…..Digital Lady Syd

12/24/2024 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Hawaii Dreaming

AI image created of Hawaii with a sunset and surfer

Created this image using Adobe Firefly AI – created a layer and clicked on the new bottom icon that says “Generate an image using a text prompt.” Used the prompt “surf shack at the beach at sunset, with surfboards. Silhouetted surfer holding surfboard looking at sun.” I got the above basic image with an ugly surfboard so another a selection of it was made. Ran another Generative Fill with the prompt “Hawaiian flowered surfboard” and got the above variation. Had to select the surfboard and do a Free-Transform (CTRL+T) for it to fit over the original ugly surfboard. Added in some birds and a little clean up to get a very nice Hawaiian scene. The font is Zahra Inline Grunge. This was actually a lot of fun to do!…..Digital Lady Syd

12/09/2024 | Categories: AI | Leave A Comment »

How I Am Feeling ATM

Drawn image of a portrait in the Mark English style.

I like Mark English‘s work a lot and decided to try it again to get my creative vibe flowing. Not sure this is exactly a “self-portrait,” but I do think it represents my recent feelings. For info on how I discovered his art, check out my Masked Tidbits Blog with more info on this. No AI was used in this image – all digitally drawn and painted in Adobe Photoshop 2024. Just a couple things make this image unique for me – I created a brush to give a really heavy texture feel to the image. In a 50-pixel Chalk brush, I added a texture pattern from Jessica Johnson – she uses this pattern (TM-6) a lot in her brushes (see Texture section of brush to download-check the little + sign on right of pattern), but I did not use her Pattern Stamp brushes, just the texture. Since Transfer’s Flow Control Panel was set to Pen Pressure only, it can be painted over to get a more dense effect if needed. Used the same texture pattern in a layer style for the hair with the Pattern Overlay set to Opacity 17 and Scale 93 – layer was set to 46 Opacity and Fill 0, and just the hair was painted over on the layer. Otherwise just the same workflow for drawing. Lots of fun to create this…..Digital Lady Syd

09/21/2024 | Categories: Art Tidbits, Just Being Creative, Photoshop Painting | Tags: , | 1 Comment »

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