Lost Aussie on the loose

A Little 3D Magic

Remember this photo, posted a while back?  Well I had a little "twiddle" with it tonight using Photoshop's 3D tools, making three versions which I then played around with a little bit more.  Doing a bit of dodging and burning and adding a good few layers of texture.

A little more work to be done on the shadows and highlights to get it quite right but a fun experiment nonetheless.

Who knew Dahlias could have so many possibilities?  And the textures I used are part of a new set that I am working on and hope to have "out there" soon....

A Caption Challenge...

I'm stumped for a titile for the latest of my altered reality images and would really like your input....

So, if you care to rise to the challenge and can think of something salient, nippy and enticing then the winner of the Caption contest will win a CD with 100 Royalty Free texture images (by me) to use in your physical or digital artwork as a Thank you ....

So put your thinking caps on and a Winner will be drawn on Friday, 5th October, 2012, 11pm EST.

Painting Gerberas

What to do with the other Macro shots that weren't just picture perfect?  Well paint them of course!

I've used some of my Venetian Textures on this image and a couple of others that I shot in Morocco.

I love, love the power of layers ..... don't you?

A Little Digital Collage

I snapped a bunch of pictures in various museums over the weekend in DC and cobbled three of them together in Photoshop for a little fun and capped the layering off with a lovely texture (pdpa FABrique texture).  Thanks for that Bonnie.

I'll be posting a tutorial on how I made the image over at LoveToPhotoshop tomorrow.

A Little Digital Dabble

Working with my new set of Venetian Textures in conjunction with an image from Faestock on Deviant Art and a few other layers for good measure!

A little wishful thinking about dancing with flowers in the Springtime!

xoxo

Over at LoveToPhotoshop.com

Inbetween working on my Venice images I've also been working on the new website LoveToPhotoshop.com

I've created a brand new set of textures and overlays based on some of the photographs that I took in Venice.

For this week only there will be a 40% discount on any orders for the texture set!  There is a coupon for you to find if it does not already show up in the Shopping Cart.... AND there is a freebie texture over there as a sample for you to download too.  So go check it out!

Anyone who buys a set of Venetian Textures from the LoveToPhotoshop site will be eligible to win a print of one of my Venetian Photographs!

Postcard Love

I've been playing with paint (the real stuff) for the last few days as I need to make some mixed media postcards for a Postcard Swap that I have signed up for.

Although I don't have too many painterly skills to boast of, I have lots of fun slapping watercolours, acrylics and inks across a page to make a colourful mess.
Best of all, I know that I can scan said "mess" and create lots of other goodness from my paper based fiddles and leverage them in many ways in Photoshop.  I can also alter the large scanned images endlessly, make new art, create brushes, play with text and well .... you get the idea.

If you are interested in Postcard swapping the sign-ups are open until January 20th!  It's an International Swap so you might get some cool art from some far flung places and the stamps alone will be fun to see.
Click on the Button above to go and check it out.

Flights of Fancy

This WAS a beautiful and crispy sweet photo that I took a couple of days ago as DH were wandering on the beach at Eaton's Neck the other day until I madly "ruined" it in Photoshop - as I am want to do - no surprises there!

Amazing what you can do with some texture, an offset filter and a few other adjustments here and there as I don't want a photo, I want an image that speaks to me and my camera is just the tool that gets me there!

I hate using the same "recipe" to tweak stuff in photoshop.  I don't tend to use actions very much either - unless you can edit the layers.  For me the key is in learning how the program tools work and how to apply them creatively in what you do so that your own voice speaks out.

I don't want my work to look like anyone else's and I don't want each picture of mine to look the same .... do you?

Push your boundaries and make something different and unique!  I dare you!

Outdoor Veggies

One of the interesting things that they have going on around and about the WA Art Gallery and Museum public space is a number of raised bed gardens.  They are all quite resplendent and full of a variety of different herbs, vegetables and other small flowering plants - pictured above is a beautiful specimen of one of the Artichoke plants.

If you were of a mind I guess you could come along and pick a handful of this and that to spice up the salad du jour, but I am not quite sure of the etiquette surrounding that sort of behaviour.

So far I have contented myself with taking pictures of the specimens that are growing and marvel at the fact that for the most part they seem to carry on unmolested.

It's an interesting concept and I wonder how it would fare in the middle of Bryant Park in New York?

(If you are interested, I played around with this image in Photoshop and used two of my Textures - Cracked Sunset and Plaster Perfect to add a little dimension and interest to the image.)

Testing out the Textures

The new texture sets that I blogged about in my previous post are proving to be lots of fun and a huge success!  Thank you!

They are not only designed to be used with photographs but work just as easily as components of your digital collage.

I've cooked up some more demo pieces using the "Grunge Paint" texture from Collection Two.  

In the first instance using the texture as a background for a digital collage....

  .... and in the second example, same texture used over a photograph I took at the beach recently!

Cool huh?  :-)

Hope you have a fun filled and creative week!