Behind The Image - From The Heart


 This image was a work in progress for quite a few weeks. 

I'd got around half way with it, but didn't like the tree branches I had coming out of the model's back. (Things sprouting from peoples' backs is a bit of a theme for me, it would appear!)

After a few weeks, and many failed attempts with different brushes and image files,  I decided that the only way to get the slightly 'otherworldly' look I was going for was to make the branches and stems myself. I bought some DAS air dry clay and set to work sculpting some basic shapes, which I then photographed, imported into photoshop, extracted, coloured and textured to blend into the final piece. 

Although not perfect by any means, I really enjoyed the process and was quite pleased with the result. In fact, so much so, that I am now about to embark on a new project which will combine more sculpture and photography. 

Below is a video showing the basic breakdown on the layer stack so you may see how the image came together. The layers don't appear necessarily in the order they were made - my work involves a lot of going back and forth with adjustments, moving up and down the layer stack - but I hope it gives at least some sense of the process. 

Until next time....

Jo. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Behind The Image - Fantasy Florals

Image
Fantasy Florals 1 Fantasy Florals 2 Fantasy Florals is a new project in which I wanted to create imaginary plants using a combination of clay sculpture and photography. Each piece starts with my sculpting very basic branches and stems from air-dry clay which I then photograph and import into photoshop. These are then combined with various extracted pieces from flowers I have photographed. The backgrounds are a combination of my photography and hand-painted textures using oil paint, which is again scanned into photoshop.  Pictured above are the first two images in the series, with more to follow. I'm having far too much fun to stop!  Below is a video showing a walkthrough of the layers making up the image. As usual, the layers do not necessarily appear in the order in which they were created, as I move up and down the layer stack often as I work.  The oil textures used in these images will soon be available to purchase from my Etsy texture shop, and the images themselves w...
Read more

Behind The Image - Goodbye Flutterbye

Image
This has been one of my most challenging pieces to date, and the one I've had the most fun with! I've had the idea of a woman whose hands morph into tree branches at the back of my mind for several months, but it's taken a while ( and a few failed attempts!) to work out how to bring the idea to life.   I used some tree branch photoshop brushes for the 'fingers' and played with various layer style fx in Photoshop, before I discovered a combination of drop shadow, inner shadow and bevel and emboss, gave life to the branches and made them look more three-dimensional. Some added bark textures (which thankfully I always have loads of!) and I achieved the desired effect. It's definitely a technique I need to practice and refine further, but I was really pleased with the result for a first attempt!  I finished off with colour grading and extra effects using the Boris FX Optics plugin for Photoshop. I recently downloaded the trial after stumbling on a video demonstratin...
Read more