Photography- Summer Stars

I decided to play with some Fourth of July photos I've had languishing around since... Said day. No this is not wishful thinking, I'm quite content with the winter weather contrary to the public opinion.

Winter is the best month for stargazing. I guess this is me trying to show off the summer "stars."

Merida- Digital Painting

Playing with one of the art programs I downloaded on my tablet. I used the free SketchBook app for tablets.

3 basic layers.
4 hours

Things I experimented with:
Opacity
Color mixing
Symmetry tool
Brushes
Blending
Skin tones
Setting a background color and building up

After I painted it I edited the photo using Pixlr Express to give it the dreamy, glowing quality.

Sherlock Tribute

This month has seen the return of one of the most eloquent and dramatic TV shows- BBC's Sherlock.

Already all 3 episodes of season 3 have been released in the UK and the first episode is set to release in the US this Friday.

Any Sherlock fan knows that this is a BIG deal since it's been 2 years since one of the greatest cliff hangers ever was dropped at the end of season 2.

The Game is On.

I did a rather abstract painting and then edited it using quotes from the first 2 seasons.

Pixlr- Online Photo Editor

I've discovered a delightful photo editing program. For free, online. They offer apps for your phone also but I have yet to try those. If they're as fun as the online programs then I'd love to have them.

The photo editor, Pixlr, has 3 different editors: Advanced, Efficient, and Playful. I chose to go with Playful tonight.

Advanced offers you the chance to start from a blank canvas, choose your dimensions, etc. while Efficient has the option of creating a collage with the ability to change all of the sizes of the pictures to your exact specifications.

Playful allows you to add effects and borders from a vast variety of choices. Vintage, classic, city, snazzy, girly, faded, etc. You can spend hours just clicking through all of them and mixing styles because all of them look good. :)

Link- http://pixlr.com/

Two Steps From Hell was my inspirational music. Heavy and dramatic.

First Experiment- a drawing of mine. This is drawn from the cover of "The Children of Hurin" by JRR Tolkien, illustrated by Alan Lee. I do not own this character, or the illustration. I drew this for my pleasure and out of my admiration for all things Tolkien.

Before

                                         after1

after2

I love the mix of textures and color in "After1" though the spiderweb in the corner almost spoils the "cool/fantasy" effect.

In "After2" I get the feeling he's looking into a fire, or is about to enter something fierce and terrifying like a war. Considering this particular characters story, that might be the most accurate message.

Second Experiment- Next I took a piece from my photography stash, the flower was already blue and the background was solid black from previous edits. I decided to take it a step further. I really really like this one.

This was all for fun, because I love to mess around with creations even after I've scratched and shaded and erased them to almost perfection.

Wishing you all the best,

~Bright

"smoky blue"