Ninety-nine percent perspiration

 

I had been mired in Photoshop frustration for some time. When I looked through my images for a starting point, nothing came to me. Nothing especially “creative.” I felt I should have been been bubbling over with ideas since beginning Sebastian Michael's Awake course this summer.

Its full title is “Awake: The Photoshop Mastery Edition” and it follows the original Photoshop Artistry course that I had mostly completed last year. Even though I am relatively Photoshop-competent and have been piling up layers and applying blend modes with abandon for some time, I hoped these courses would not only teach me new skills but also propel me into greater digital creativity.

One unexpected benefit has been finding myself a part of a community of equally Photoshop-obsessed souls all around the globe. Before I could look at and study their compositions via the monthly Living the Photo Artistic Life Magazine, the photoshopartistryInstagram feed or the Fine Art Photoshop Flickr group, but now I feel I can interact with them more fully if I choose.

Many of these people have built up a large and enviable body of work. Ah, yes, work, that's the key word. Referencing the famous Thomas A. Edison quote, instead of Genius, I think you could certainly say Art “is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” So with that in mind, I sat myself down one morning and kept working away until I had put together the composition above. 

The biggest challenge was the main photo that I had taken at the Dallas Arboretum of the tree with its sprawling limbs. Because that's about all there was to the photo: just the trunk and limbs. I had the idea of painting on leaves with some of the wonderful foliage brushes created by Kyle T Webster and available to Photoshop CC subscribers. After actually achieving that, I added the birds with Birds of a Feather II brushes by Midnight Touch at Deviant Art. Hmm...blackbirds...rooks! Immediately the line from “The Spring and The Fall” by Edna St. Vincent Millay came to me. (I fell in love with her poems when I was young, and random lines are still enmeshed in my memory.)

So then I had a theme, and the rest of the composition (slowly) fell into place. I added another of my photos to create the sky and the sepia shadow trees. The rustic frame is from The Graphics Fairy. The seal (altered) is from Deviant Art and the feather found in a CC search from Alan Levine at Flickr. Behind it all is a vintage paper texture from Lost and Taken, with more texture added with PS brushes.

It was so satisfying to finally have finished something that I was pleased with, that I could share with the Awake group. But rather than attempting another digital creation marathon, I'm now trying to spend some time each day just experimenting and expanding my Photoshop skills and seeing what ideas might develop. I have to say, the perspiration is barely noticeable.