Standing Guard

This Wrinkled Hornbill bird was taken at the Jacksonville Zoo. These birds looked like they were having so much fun flying across their enclosure and trading places on the various tree branches. Looked like a marvelous game from my childhood! This image took a long time to paint. Just followed my normal process of selecting the bird and in this case some branches in Topaz (see sidebar for website link) ReMask 5. Underneath he original background was actually kept, but one of my Corel Painter backgrounds was added above and set to Darken blend mode at 82% layer opacity. The background details are actually a large plant that was hanging across the back. The texture changed how they look. Lots of painting layers and Topaz Lens Effects was used to add some golden reflector effect. Nik Viveza 2 was used to adjust the focal point. 2 Lil’ Owls (see sidebar for website link) overlay texture Color Bokeh Grunge Set 3 was used on top and a layer mask was used to bring back the bird. That was it – pretty standard. These birds are so much fun to paint!…..Digital Lady Syd