Giving it meaning
page three of four about making a digital ATC, by aisling d'art ©2005
At this point, the card was pretty... but it had no real theme or meaning to it.
And, while "pretty" art can stand on its own merits, I rarely choose to make art without
another layer of meaning. So, I started examining the card for clues.
I increased the contrast and lightened the background layer. I knew
that something needed to go in front of it, and by reducing the "obviousness" of the background, it helped me to focus.
I was still drawing a blank. So, I went to my copy of
Photoshop Secrets of the Pros: 20 Top Artists and Designers Face Off
I was inspired by the work of John Henry Donovan, of 5pieces.com.
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I tried inverting color (Image-->Adjust) in strips with five-pixel feathering. However, once the stripes were dark, I needed to duplicate the layer with the Paris-Draped figure, to make it more opaque. |
And, I wasn't too sure that I liked the effect anyway. In fact, it was pretty much ick. And, having set a three-hour deadline--trying to mimic my one-hour ATCs but allow for this documentation--I needed to finish the card quickly.
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I started selecting rectangular areas of the background, and changing the hue of each of them and then switched them back again.
Finally, I worked with the area nearest the middle and altered it back to its original, natural colors.
Then, I chose Select-->Inverse and tweaked the remaining background image and adjusted it until I was happy with it. Finally, the Paris-Draped layer had to be adjusted as well, both contrast and hue.
Now, I was getting a theme. The Paris-Draped figure was clearly from the past, and the single band of natural/real coloring in the image was like a faded memory... only part of it was accurate and the rest was a little surreal.