Cherry Blossoms
Been missing the beautiful Spring in Virginia and the DC area so created this digital painting to get the essence of the beautiful colors of the Cherry Trees. It was started by using an image taken at the Jacksonville Zoo of trees covered with white Spanish Moss in February. Two textures by Kim Klassen were added: her Granny Cupboard (where the Blend If This Layer black tab was split and set to 187/221 to show just the tree trunks coming through this light colored texture) and Shine (a pinkish texture which was set to Darken blend mode). After that, just various layers were added using 6 different brushes in Photoshop. Also two Impasto Layer was created using a Layer Style created in my How to Create an Impasto Layer Style blog. I used Fay Sirkis’s Palette Knive Reflection Soft Blender #2 mixer brush to add the general impasto effect (KelbyOne is the only place I know that still has her brushes). Used one of Grut’s brushes to make tiny flowers – had changed it to create the blossom effect I wanted – basically little bunches of dots with Color Dynamics turned on. This brush was also used on the the Layer Style to add some depth to the brush strokes made on an earlier layer. Also used Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Lens Effects to create the soft pink color, add some light to the left side of the image, and add a graduated fog vignette. Overall it was a lot of fun to do. This is a great time to try out new techniques……Digital Lady Syd
Red Fish Taking a Break from Universal Studios
Just another image taken at the Universal Studios-Orlando, this time featuring the Red Fish at one of the Seuss Landing rides. Got a little carried here but it was a lot of fun! Basically all I did was extract the fish from the original image and paint in some elements to make him look like he was swimming in the water. Actually there were several paint layers to get the effect and Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Simplify’s Cartoon preset was applied to just the fish. Also, when done painting, a stamped layer was placed on top and Topaz Lens Effects was opened. The Toy Camera Awesomeness II was applied with the Toy Camera Aberrations sliders turned off. Adjusted some of the other sliders a little. That was it! Love how happy this guy looks!…..Digital Lady Syd
