Comfort Cottage

In The Bleak Midwinter

Hello there!  I have the Day 7 offering for Kim Klassen's Twelve Days of Texture.

 

 

I combined two of my photos in Photoshop CS5 and used several of Kim's textures.  Here's the layer by layer:

Layer 1:  kkEdward; blend mode: normal; opacity:  47%;  with a gradient overlay

Layer 2: Fence photograph; Blend Mode: color burn; opacity: 100%

Layer 3:  Lily photograph; Blend Mode:  Lighten; Opacity: 94%; added an Underpainting filter; added a layer mask to paint out unwanted parts of photo

Layer 4:  kkCosmos; Blend Mode: Screen; Opacity: 100%

Layer 5:  copy of kkCosmos; Blend Mode: Screen; Opacity 100%

Layer 6:  kkScratched Magic; Blend Mode: Screen; Opacity 100%

Layer 7:  Font: Enid; Opacity 85%; drop shadow; Stroke: color, black; size 3pts

 

In The Bleak Midwinter is a beautiful hymn, written by Gustov Holst in 1905.  The lyrics were penned by  poetess, Christina Rosetti.   The hymn was masterfully reworked by the late singer/songwriter, Dan Fogelberg, and recorded for his 1999 Christmas CD, The First Christmas Morning.  The song expresses the poignant desire of a soul wishing to give something to his Lord in gratitude for the gift of His Son.  The only gift worthy of his Lord is his heart.

I created this work in honor of Dan, who passed away on December 16, 2007.  His was a beautiful soul, and he is joyfully remembered and sadly missed.

 

Until next time,

 

Christmas Past

Another offering for Kim Klassen's Twelve Days of Texture!

 

 

I captured this image of a vintage bicycle last year.  The building it is leaning against dates back to the early 1700's.  My Photoshop CS5 recipe:

 

Bottom Layer:  Kim's Zuzu texture; blending mode:  normal; hue adjusted toward the magenta side; opacity: 77%

Photo Layer: In color; Blending mode set to Normal

Copy of Photo Layer:  photo converted to black and white; bumped up the curves settings; added a noise filter;  added a sepia toned photo filter; added a layer mask to loosely paint the poinsettias back in (I set the brush to 20% flow); blending mode:  Darken

I then merged the Photo layer and the Copy of Photo layer.

Top Layer:  Kim's Annabelle texture, inverted; blending mode: Color Dodge; opacity 100%

 To learn more about Kim, the Twelve Days of Texture, and for free textures, class offerings, and links to all of the "Twelve Days" participants, click here.

Have a fabulous day!

 

Until next time,

 

 

 

 

Love Came Down At Christmas

This was supposed to be Day 4 of Twelve Days of Texture at Kim Klassen Cafe, but it's after midnight.  It's now Day 5!

 

 

I used two of my photos for this one.  Both photo layers have a drybrush filter and a colored pencil filter applied to them.  I tweaked the settings until I got the look I was after.  I also used Kim's Cosmos texture above the photo layer, inverted, set to screen with a reduced opacity.  The font is Aquiline and the quote is by Christina G. Rosetti.  To see more texture art, click here to find all the links.

 

Until next time,

 

Twelve Days of Texture

Kim Klassen is having a wonderful twelve day texture-fest over at the Cafe.  I'm jumping in on Day 3.  I posted the original photo a little earlier today in my previous post.  I added a few layers of Kim's Lilly texture and added a "posterize" adjustment layer to the photo layer in Photoshop CS5.

 

 

For some beautiful examples of digital artistry combining photography and texture, you can click here to go straight to the Twelve Days of Texture event at the Kim Klassen Cafe.  You'll find all the links there!

 

See you again soon!