Sunday, September 20, 2009

Digital Image: Yoga Pose


Yesterday, I saw a group of people doing yoga in the gym. I wasn't a gym member, only a passer by. Anyway, one of the instructors who wasn't guiding the class did a pose which I thought only existed in ballet or gymnastics. It was a beautiful pose.

I made the background thinking about how yoga was a part of Indian culture. The image wasn't exactly accurate, because it's too geometric. But the pose was so fluid, I needed to balance it with a bit of angle. So by using a hexagonal shape, copy layer facility, and a move tool, the background pattern constructed itself.

The focus subject only consisted of a silhouette because sketching the exact feature of the person wasn't really my niche. I selected the subject, filled it with white with 30% opacity, added a bit of shading and highlight so it wouldn't look too flat. And with selection still active, I added a 2 pixels black stroke and a 3 pixels Gaussian blur.

Here's the result.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Digital Image: Rose 2


This is the same rose as previous post. I only made a few changes on the vines. This new one had more floral feel to it, compared to the last one. I don't know, more sword-n-shield vibe?

I made the outlines using Corel's pen tool because of its newbie-friendliness. So were the vines. Only this time, I chose artistic pen. You can even write calligraphy with the artistic pen. Don't know where to find the tutorials though.

I filled the color on photoshop, as usual. The effects were not layer style, only simple filters. Lighting rendering as usual. Some friends told me that the lighting filter only adjust ... well, the lighting effects and none of the bevel effect. Here is the cheat code: use channel. Yup, load your image as selection and create new channel. The result would be a black background with your selection. Fill the selection with white. New channel would be named alpha. Copy alpha channel layer. With selection still active, apply gaussian blur filter with any value you want as long as the image still has definite form. Invert the selection and cut background. Go back to layer tab. Create new channel and fill with any background color you want. Go to filter > render > lighting, and pick the channel alpha copy. The preview window should show an relief-like image, like your original picture was carved there. Apply the filter. Back to original pic layer and load it as selection. Go to the layer with lighting filter on it. Invert selection and cut background. The result should have similar effect to the image above.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Digital Image: Rose GIF


I saved this rose image in GIF format, so it would be alright to place on a web page. The file size is not too large, methinks.

The rose was created using pen tool in CorelDraw. With Ctrl+Q to convert lines to curve, I could manipulate the initial sketch into forms I wanted. Even the swirly lines were not difficult. To copy the object to their exact opposite, I just needed to drag it to the other side while holding Ctrl key, then right-clicked on the desired position. Instant flip. No need to copy layer, and then flip in from Edit menu. But that's just photoshop for you.

Still, photoshop has the advantages of colors. Really beautiful colors you can pick with only an eyedropper. And pretty textures you can custom-make. Some of the awesome effects are only a click away using filters or layer styles. I only added noise and a little lighting rendering for this rose image.

If you know flash, this image can be made into a button. At least, the rose can. Maybe I'll try to make a button with it.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Digital Image: Jewel

After being a bit down yesterday, I'm kind of content with this image. Quality-wise, way better than previous upload.
This is also fully digital, but with a lot of help from free tutorials around the net.
I think it's kind of pretty. Shiny, at the very least.

This image is all filter and a lot of blending style. I hope I can remember all of it. The tutorial is a little difficult for me to follow.
But I manage to do some changes from the original tutorial, like using fleur-de-lis instead of butterfly in the middle of the gem.

The background was easy though. I just used black filling, layered by blurred white circle. The swirly pattern could easily be found on the net. I only applied lightening filter to make the "pearls" stand out.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Digital Image: Landscape


This is getting ridiculous. The more I practice, the more I degrade.

I was going for a natural look. See? Natural, as in reddish afternoon sky. Not this forbidding gates of hell.

Next thing I know, I'd give up going digital and stick with the pencil and charcoal. At least, I have better control of my hand. Drawing with a mouse is harsh. My hand kept getting tangled with the cord. I clicked at the wrong places. Then the computer shut down.
I'm at my wits end.

So, on with the image. Fully photoshop. Tools: brush and smudge. Filter: noise and blur and lightening. Oh my.
That's it.