Faces

I normally do not like to take pictures with people in them.  Not my favorite thing and I think part of it is because I don't like to have my picture taken.  In an effort to learn more about Photoshop and how to 'play' with my pictures, I am trying to do a tutorial a day so see what I can come up with.

The first one I decided to do was transforming a face onto a gnarly tree tutorial .  I like the whole "Green Man" lore, so I thought I would start there.  However, I wanted to use my own pictures and I didn't have a picture of a tree I liked, so I used a rock wall I had taken a picture of and placed a picture of myself on it.



Ok, it's there.  I think my glasses detract from the effect however.  So I decided to practice on another one, but this time use one of the girls.  However, with using flowers I need to redo the color selected for the color and it isn't working right.  It will be a practice for another day to try this again.  

In the meantime, this is me imitating Mount Rushmore.

Buttercup Mandala

I have been trying to create a mandala a day with some of the pictures I took at the arboretum.  Today, since the weather is going from sunny to stormy, I thought I would show my Buttercup Mandala.

This is the original picture.....




A nice, rufflely buttercup.  They are just starting to really opening up in this area.  After the warm days we have had recently, they should be really making a show in the next week or two.







Here is my mandala.  I love the play of the different shades of yellow there are in the mandala.

Agave

On a recent trip to the arboretum, I took this picture of an agave and the flower stalk.  It was from last year's bloom.  But I loved the look of this huge flower stalk against the bright blue sky.  The stalk was about 9-10 feet tall.

I wish I could have seen it in bloom as it must have been magnificent with the size of the plant.
















This is the mandala I created from the picture.  It just seemed so proud and brave to be standing there in spite of the winter weather.

The blue background isn't a fill on photoshop, it is the actual blue of the sky.  

It's Becoming Spring

I had to do a photography assignment and went to J.C. Raulston Arboretum to take the pictures.  And this guy popped up to assist.  Actually, he was trying to woo a little cutie and I was interrupting the process.  But with the blue sky and the dark branches, it was just a great sight.

I hope he was successful in his endeavors after I moved on.

Sunset Mandala

This was created from a picture I took of the sunset at school when we went outside to take pictures in the waning light.

Sunset Mandala

Grunge Sunset

I love the look of some of the layered photos coming out.  I go between the HDR pictures and pictures which remind me more of something that could have been art journaled.  So using this Photoshoproadmap tutorial, I used my pictures and some pictures of sidewalk rocks that I used for my grunge textures and came up with this....

This is a picture of the sunset last week at Wake Tech.  The grunge layers came from pictures of rock slabs on a sidewalk at work I had taken. 

Digital Mandalas

I love kaleidoscopes and mandalas.  Aren't kaledioscopes actually moving mandalas?  Anyway, I have long admired those who do digital mandalas, such as Sue O'Kieffe at Sacred Circle Mandalas.  I also have had this tutorial  by Earth Mandalas bookmarked for ages now.

Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I decided to give it a try.  (Also a better understanding of Photoshop and how to manipulate pictures helps.)  And here are a few of my mandalas I created today....

This is from the bud of a sunflower.

A dogwood blossom.

Tiger at the National Science Museum in Washington

Sunflower

 

Wisteria

I feel like I am choosing between children when I think about which one I like the most.  I like them all.      So more mandalas to come I am sure.