Simple Shapes

Sometimes less is more...

This simple image resulted when I rediscovered a handy little tool in Photoshop called "Shapes."  All I had to do was select a few and layer them.  As I was just playing around, I didn't have any sort of plan or intention, otherwise I might have used some colour in the composition.  As it is, though, I think it's reminiscent of a woodblock print.

What do you think? Would you consider this as a card to send out for the holiday season?  Of course, one would have to be a cat lover to do so...but I think there are more than a few out there...

Groovin'

Experimenting, learning new tricks in Photoshop over the past couple of days...

The photo of the girl is taken from an online tutorial which was demonstrating how to extract a figure from a background.  The tut didn't work for me but I ad-libbed my way through and eventually produced this image, also learning how to make a halftone pattern, and discovering other interesting effects along the way just by trying things out to see how they look.  The circles and lines in the background are actually marks in cement that I photographed somewhere, some time ago.

variation on the theme

Another recent experiment had me riffing on a not-so-hot photo I'd made of a heron with its wings spread. I didn't know quite what effect I was after, but I knew it when I suddenly (after 3 hours or so of tinkering) hit on it.

This is it. Soft, impressionistic, slightly luminous.

At least, I hope that's how it appears.

online public domain

Here are the two source photos:

straight out of camera

Two very different experiments over the course of a couple of days.  One being more in the line of graphic design, the other more painterly.Both were very satisfying experiments for me and I hope at least one or the other appeals to you.

Lavender's Blue, Dilly Dilly

My grandmother used to sing me that song, "Lavender's Blue," and  I awoke with it in my head this morning. It might be because I spent so much time playing with this old photograph in Photoshop last night.

My neighbour was going to throw out a collection of old photos a couple of years ago and I seized the opportunity to grab them for my hoard.  Recently, she requested them back for a project of her own, which prompted me to actually do something with the pictures before relinquishing them.

Many hours of scanning later, this young pair sitting on the grass caught my attention.  

Are they brother and sister?  

Cousins?  

Good friends? 

 Sweet hearts?  

The boy in particular looks so romantically, yet innocently, charming.

(Of course, we'll never know...but look how discreetly the girl's knees are tucked beneath the boy's bent legs...secretly touching.  For this reason, I'm including this picture in Bonnie's themed gallery this month, "Embrace" over at Pixel Dust Photo Art.)

 I zoomed in on them, scanned them and set to work in Photoshop, experimenting with tools I'd not tried before, such as the airbrush.  The result, I think, lends an impressionistic feeling to the picture: not quite photograph, far from painting...yet something in between.  

Here's the original photograph ( approx. 4 x 2 inches).

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"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green.
If I were queen, dilly dilly,
you'd be my king"...
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Meanwhile, it's back to bed for me--the scanning bed!