Behind The Image - Goodbye Flutterbye

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 demonstrating it on YouTube, and loved it so much I knew I just had to have the full licence. There are many amazing effects that can be achieved, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of the features. From my limited time with it, I can already tell it's an extremely powerful tool, and one I'll use time and time again. 


I put together a brief video showing the image layer by layer in photoshop which I will include below. Sadly, the quality is not great - I think I need to look at my output settings in iMovie - but it may help to give an idea as to how an image like this is put together. 




Until next time...

Jo. 

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