Saturday, May 28, 2011

Maelstrom Walk Through

Hello, my friends!  :)

A lot of you have asked about my creative process.  You're in luck!  During the latest piece I did called "Maelstrom" I finally remembered to take screen shots of my progress.  ;)  (Actually, I kept bugging and pestering two good friends, Sandra & Heather for their expert opinions.  LOL)  Thank you for your never - ending patience ladies!

Even if they did lose patience, they were gracious enough not to tell me to go take a L O N G swim out in the gator pond out back.  Heh

This is just an overview ... not a complete tutorial.  Meaning I will not describe how I did step-by-step.  Maybe one day but I just don't have it in me today.  LOL

Step One:  The original photo of Morgan






Step Two:  Extracting Morgan




Step Three:  Painting Hair on Morgan





Step Four:  Paint Tentacles





Step Five:  Create Body to go with Tentacles and Movement to the Cape





Step Six:  Add a Staff & Change Color of Tentacles





Step Seven:  Start Adding Background - Use awesome water brushes from Cryztal Rain -  Change Staff - Change Color of Cape to Red




Step Eight:  Change color of cape to Green - Begin Darkening up the Mood - Add glow to staff using Cryztal Rain's "Bokeh Lightz" brushes & glow to hair





Step Nine:  Add Texture and Shading to the tentacle body



Step Ten:   Change color of the cape ... A G A I N.  Slowly start to question your sanity.


Step Eleven:  Confirm that you've lost all sense of self-preservation because you've decided to make it a Double Page.  Start all over with a new background using Lorie Davison's fabulous art.

Step Twelve:  Clean up the maelstrom and make it darker.


Step Thirteen:  Add the Black Pearl (not really the Black Pearl) from Eena's Creations and flip the page to see if you like seeing it from this perspective. 



Step Fourteen:  Decide you were right the first time and wait 15 minutes for your image to flip back over.  Add some more awesome water brushes from Cryztal Rain.  Add some more land to add the illusion of depth of focus and Darken up the image even more.


Step Fifteen:  Add MORE brushwork with the water for waves and dripping off the tentacles.  Add some spoooooky lightning.  All brushes from Cryztal Rain and even more goodies from the artistic phenomena known as Lorie Davison.  Then go even DARKER!


Step Sixteen:   Did I say go darker ... I meant REALLY go to the DARK Side ... and added some hair accessories.

Step Seventeen:  Decide you may have gone too far with the hair accessories with the help of a good friend (thank you, Sandra).  Spam ... I mean ... e-mail your friend with about 7 different hair styles, until she's tired of you and you're happy and she's ready to add you to her spam filter.  And lighten up the bottom right hand waves.


Close - Ups


Side B:


That's it!  

Done in Photoshop CS5
Total Work Time:  Around 40 hours
Products Used by the following Designers:
Cryztal Rain:  Shop
Lorie Davison:  Shop
Eena's Creations:  Shop



14 comments:

  1. Your art is nothing short of amazing.. i LOVE your page and i loved seeing it evolve.. Thank you for sharing that with me....
    Hugsssssssss

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heh, you've been added to the spam filter.

    dang woman, this is amazing, I look at all the changes and details and I keep wondering, "how the hell did she do that?"
    This is SO cool!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow - besides how the hell did she do that, I'm also thinking, "What made her choose to?" My brand of insanity isn't nearly as creative as yours :) THATS what you need to bottle and sell! Your own brand of insanity - All kidding aside, this layout is a real masterpiece.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyy Lord! You have gone beyond the pale. This is unbelievable. Call Disney, you are ready!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. absolutely marvelous! Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree with Carola about bottling your creative insanity to share LOL It is an amazing piece of art!! I need more details though- when you are ready and can stand to think about this again ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Seriously. You SOOOOO inspire me! Love this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. well done. cool to see your process. thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  9. BRAVO!!! (insert standing ovation here)

    Do you sell real estate inside your imagination, by any chance?

    You are amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is the most beautiful piece of digital art I have ever seen. I wish I just had a smidgen of your imagination & talent. I love your tut's and you sharing this with us is just amazing.

    xoxo
    Jenna in Canada

    ReplyDelete
  11. Excellent artistic work. 40 hours is certainly a very long time but WOW look at the result. Fantastic - thanks for showing us the steps. You inspire people every day. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am in agreeance with your friends and other visitors - AMAZING PIECE...linked from a tut to a blog to a if you wanna learn layouts link check out Miss Behaving - Best click fest yet :) Seeing your process was nice, makes me feel as if I might not be so neurotic afterall on the mojo side of things. Thanks for sharing...GORGEOUS.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi, this is an amazing piece.thanks for sharing. I have a project that would require painting hair like that. IS there a brush for this look?
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Carol

    ReplyDelete