Self Healing

Thank God for Yoga.

It has been the only relief that I have had in the past week in dealing with some sort of rampant virus that has effected my back, neck and head. Thus, sitting at the computer or having a camera hanging from my neck has been difficult to say the least. And in turn, it's stifled my creative flow.

The only saving grace has been my Yoga practice. Any other form of my regular exercise such as running or kick boxing has made me feel worse but Yoga has made me feel better.

By connecting my mind, body and breath together I have been able to stay relaxed and calm through excruciating pain. Calming the mind is important when you don't know what the exact cause of the ailment is. My mind tends to lean towards the most horrific result..headache? Must be a tumor! So by connecting myself to the earth, I find peace in the pain.

The Yoga breath brings more oxygen to the body which speeds healing.

I've been practicing Yoga now for 10 years and it's like a comforting best friend that you can turn to when you need some relief from the everyday stresses of life. I can't imagine myself without her.

I'm finally feeling better, the pain subsiding day by day...just in time for my upcoming holidays! Now, let's hope I don't contract the H1N1 while travelling!

Falling Back in Love with Collaging

Ahhh...I have fallen back in love with Collaging. "Back" in love because there was a time where I collaged often and loved it dearly. Creating collage posters as a teenager, which included the heartthrob of the week cut from Tiger Beat magazine...Collaging together scrapbooks with pictures of my life, mostly during my 20's and 30's. Then, in my 40's, I fell back in love with Photography and collage work went the way of so many of my hobbies...into a drawer or closet, biding time until the spark of creativity struck again.

Film Photography led to Digital Photography which led me to discover Photoshop which led me to creating Digital Art which in turn led me back to Collaging. Life always comes full circle, doesn't it?

So here I am, perusing old vintage ads, paintings and photographs in the public domain as well as boxes of my own ephemera, pictures and collectible postcards with the hope that one image will start that avalanche of creative flow. My latest piece was inspired by a faux French Travel Poster stuck to a window at Epcot, DisneyWorld.

Paris, je t'aime (Paris, I love you) included 8 images, all layered carefully one atop another in Photoshop, masking, erasing, dodging, burning, using blending modes, opacity, curves and filters to create a seamless composition. I have hundreds of images of France...how to pick the right ones for a collage? By being picky...matching colors, resolution and textures. Collaging is like getting dressed...you can over accessorize and ruin the whole look. :)

I don't know how long this romance will last as my creative self tends to be finicky but for right now, I'm deep in love with Collage. :)

A Child's Imagination

Daniel and I share a love of books and Fantasy...we love Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

So, on one of our "date days" we headed to the bookstore. An oversized kids book called "Mythical Creatures" caught my eye and an idea for a digital piece began to form.

I like to gather all the images for my pieces first...sometimes when I have them all open I realize they don't work together. Doing this step first helps me to visualize where everything is going to be placed into a scene, how the lighting and color is in each image and whether or not it will blend together.

I chose a forest for the background. After searching my travel stock, I settled on this image of a sunlit forest taken during my trek of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. Working on the background required adding in some additional trees to fill in some spaces and cloning out the branches on the ground and cloning in additional grass.

I next cut out the photograph of Daniel and a stock image of a tree stump and place both into their own layers. More work on the grass is done around the tree stump. Depth is created by using various shades of green.

At this point in the process, I add a Curves Adjustment layer to darken the background layer and take away some of the light coming through the trees. Knowing where I am going to place the dragon, I go ahead and create a shadow on the grass under where he will be. This is done using a grass brush in a deep dark green and adding the effect of a Drop Shadow. This way I get more depth than just using the burn tool.

A stock photo of a broken egg is cut out and placed into the grass. More grass work is done around the egg and additional areas of the image..pretty much until I'm satisfied. :)

I next created the glow by using Photoshop brushes found on DA and clicking the colorize box on Hue/Saturation and adjusting until I found a color I liked and that fit in with the rest of the image. Now it was time to add the dragon.

Searching stock photos, it took me some time to find one that I could work with. The difficulty was finding one that had the head in the right position. Everything else I could manipulate using the Warp Tool which I did as you can see in the final image. I also wanted to change the color, contrast and texture of the dragon. All of these things were achieved using standard Photoshop adjusments. I placed in a Curves Adjustment Layer to add a bit more overall darkness to the entire image and used High Pass Sharpening to sharpen areas of the Daniel and the Dragon.

I then copied the Glow Layer and place the copy above the dragon, lowering the opacity so that the dragon seems to be coming out of the glow instead of just in front of it. I erased the areas I didn't need and in addition erased some of the dragon using a Layer Mask on the dragon layer to bring the glow through and around the dragon.

Lastly, I flatten the image and run a filter over it to cross balance the color and give it a warmer glow. Viola! A child's imagination come's to life! :)

Creating a Vintage Collage with Photoshop

Cabinet cards...photographic postcards...vintage photographs.

Over time, many of these images end up unwanted showing up in estate sales, antique stores and even on eBay. But, like our own photographs, these images once meant something to someone.

There are people like myself who collect old photographs. I find it interesting, these unknown faces staring at me. What kind of life did they live? What were their thoughts when that photograph was taken? What tragedies did they endure? What happiness graced them?
Vintage collages can give new life to an old, discarded photograph and turn it into something creative and artful.

Even if you don't collect old photographs, you can find several resources online where you can download free images for use in your artwork.
I currently have a few available for use here in my Vintage Stock Gallery:
http://lausanne.deviantart.com/
Whether you are using my stock or someone else's, always remember to follow the rules for use.

Now, let's see just how easy it is to create a vintage collage in Photoshop using layers!
First, choose a vintage photograph. Here is the one I used from my own collection to create my image "Exploration":

It's a fantastic find for a vintage photograph having a lone figure in front of this stunning monument. But, let's make it more interesting! One of the easiest ways to do that is to add a texture. You can find textures available anywhere..just look around..peeling paint? brick wall? pile of hay? You can begin to stockpile your own textures or visit a group like Textures for Layers on flickr and download some free textures but be sure to follow the rules of the original contributor regarding use of their texture and be sure to always give proper credit:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/textures4layers/

For "Exploration", I wanted a texture that had color since the original image is monotone. I chose one from flickr user bernhofen (who posted it in the Textures for Layers group) which is a photo of a corrupted Roman Fresco, perfect for this ancient monument:

When making a collage, there is no limit to how many images you can layer into it. I've seen digital collages with dozens of images compiled into one masterful piece. However, for "Exploration", I didn't want to distract too much from the original photograph so besides the texture I decided on just one other additional item. I chose a map from my own personal stock in keeping with the theme of travel and exploration:

Now that you have all your images open in Photoshop, let's combine them using Layers.

The first step is to make a copy of your original background layer. You can do this by going to Layer-Duplicate Layer-Background Copy. This way your original image stays untouched in case you make a mistake or want to erase something you did.

Next, let's make a new layer above your Background Copy. Click on Layer-New Layer and name it "Texture". You can also create a new layer by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the layer pallet. Click on your texture image and go to Select-All followed by Edit-Copy.

You can now click on your new texture layer and select paste to add the texture. The texture will cover the entire image so you will need to adjust Opacity in order for your chosen photograph to show through. For "Exploration" I didn't want it too light because I wanted some of the color to show through so I chose to lower the opacity to 60%. You can now choose a blending mode...when doing collages or working with textures, I tend to use the following blending modes the most: Multiply, Soft Light and Overlay. For "Exploration" I chose Multiply which gives more punch to the colors in the texture.

With the Texture Layer highlighted in the layers pallet, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom. Using a soft brush you can erase any areas where you don't want the texture. In my image I erased around the top of the figure so she would stand out a bit more.

Continue to add images by repeating the same step above to create new layers, adjusting opacity & blending modes and softening up or removing any hard edges by using a layer mask with a soft brush.

For the map image, I used the rotate tool to angle the image before blending it in with Overlay set at 50%. By placing the map up in the top left corner, I balance out the composition. Any additional images added to this piece would throw that off. You still want to be mindful of composition when creating collages. Be creative but don't overpower your composition by placing too many images into one piece.

I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial and above all, remember to be creative and have fun!

A Moving Performance

This was not only amazing, but hauntingly beautiful, moving, sad. It really touched me today. I don't think you have to have lived through WWII to understand her story..the themes are universal. It makes me feel sadness for all those lost, for innocence interrupted, love split apart. Kseniya isn't an artist separated from her art, you can see what she feels in her display of emotion as she creates her piece. Stunning, to say the least.

Traditional Art

Ahh...traditional art. I so miss it. My time has been consumed these recent days with the newer medium of digital art. But that doesn't mean my love for the old ways has faded away. I still crave it at times. A quick oil study of some woods shows that I can still make time for traditional art. The image above took me just over two hours and although I am just a hobbyist at best, oil painting makes me *feel* like an artist.

The smell of the oils, laying them out on the pallet, the feel of them sweeping across the canvas, time fluttering by and my mind free of cares. Painting is not only a joy, but it is so relaxing, therapeutic, healing.

I'm reminded by these images of my Lime Still Life how nothing can become something all by one's own hand.

It's really exciting to see the final result and it usually motivates and inspires to do another...to keep on painting...creating art...filling the world with beauty. Whether it's formed with a canvas and paintbrush or a computer tablet and pen, it is still art and I am still an artist. And I will keep on creating. :)

Using Filters to Create a Look

I've recently become obsessed with using filters to enhance my photography.
Both On-camera Filters and Photoshop Filters.

ON-CAMERA FILTERS

On-camera filters are rarely used anymore, even for Black and White photography as most digital cameras come with built-in features to turn your photos to b&w or sepia, to even enhance contrast and up the saturation. But two filters should be a must-have in every camera bag. One is a Polarizer which can cut down reflections on metal and glass. It can help even out nature shots by reducing reflections on water and sheen on vegetation. I use it alot when the sky is kind of hazy and dull. It can give a *punch* to the sky, making the blues richer. Here is an example where I used a Polarizer to achieve that blue sky:

The second on-camera filter I use is the Neutral Density filter. This helps control exposure on a bright day or when there is too much light reaching the sensor and you want to achieve a slow shutter speed. This was recently the case when I was in Las Vegas. Shooting night shots is a bit tricky because sometimes there is too much light coming from all the Neon glow around you. To help slow down the shutter speed I popped on my ND filter and was able to capture this image:

With this image, there were about 20 other people standing around flashing their bulbs at the fountain. That, along with light from the street and the fountain itself created a challenge with getting the shutter to slow down enough to capture the fountain and the golden light that was actually illuminating the area. Adding an ND filter cut down the amount of surrounding light and I was able to capture this image, keeping the mood and colors of the night intact.

Some photographers like to keep a UV Filter on their lenses at all times to help protect their lenses from dirt, scratches and damage. This one is a matter of personal preference. I don't use one as I feel it effects the outcome of the photograph but I know lots of photographers who never shoot without one and their images are still fantastic.

PHOTOSHOP FILTERS

Here's where the real fun is! There are a gazillion photoshop filters out there and each one can create a unique look on your photograph. The following four images are all the same with the exception of having a filter added to the end result:

Here is the original, with no filter added:

This one has a Contrast Filter, upping the contrast between the highlights, shadows and colors:
By using the Contrast Filter, you can create a more even, professional look on your photo.

The third image show use of a Vintage Filter:

In this image, we can see how the Vintage Filter muted the colors and added a yellow tint, making it look like an aged photograph.

Finally, here is an example of one of my favorite filters the Fog Filter:

By using a Fog Filter and adjusting the Opacity, you can create a "dreamy" image, one that appears to have a soft focus.

These filters are plug-ins for Photoshop and there are many sites out there that offer free filter plug-ins as well as demos of filter software. Here are a couple:

http://www.cybia.co.uk/theworks.htm

http://thepluginsite.com/products/harrysfilters/index.htm

If you decide that Filters are for you, then it is definitely worth the purchase of a software that really gives you fantastic creative options, such as:

Mystical Tint Tone and Color 2.0 which has 60 filters creating over 300 preset looks:

http://www.autofx.com/products/mttc/detail.html

I hope you all enjoyed this tidbit on using Filters! Now, go get creative! :-)