Available as Posters, Cards, and Prints
I’m never quite sure how to categorise creations like May Easter Joy Attend You. Is it a collage? Is it digital art, a term that applies to everything I do? Why do I concern myself? Sites like Saatchi Art and Fine Art America need you to add this information when you upload an image. It drives me nuts, partly because I loathe categories.
The method I use is collage in that I prepare a background and then bring in elements around a particular theme and blend to a seamless whole, rather than what is strictly known as collage where elements are arranged seemingly haphazardly such as in Indian Glories.
In this instance, I prepped a background by doctoring one of Kerstin Frank’s textures, the same one I used for Alice’s Adventures.
Some of the Easter elements I brought in were discarded and replaced but not before I’d worked on them quite substantially — all good experience and not a waste of time!
These rabbits looked best in the Darken mode. But this meant the egg was far from clear. I used the Lasso Tool to select it (the Magnetic Tool is never accurate enough unless you are working with sharply defined objects) and created a new layer for the egg alone. This layer I left in its Normal state and placed it on top of the original egg. It needed touching up with the Brush and Clone Stamp Tools before I was satisfied.
The Darken mode also meant that the lower part of the right-hand rabbit had taken on the green of the background. This needed adjustment which I did by tracing the exact shape of the offending part with the Lasso Tool. I moved to the background image and chose a lighter area in the ‘sky’ to create a new layer of the rabbit-leg shape. I left it in a Normal state and placed it behind the rabbit. Several colour adjustments were needed until the rabbit’s nether regions matched the rest of his body!
The Multiply mode was ideal for the hot air balloon but left the chicks in the basket more green than yellow. Mind you, one could argue that would be appropriate as surely the poor little blighters would be air sick! I used the same technique on them as I did on the egg to bring their yellow feathers back to life.
This left me with the bottom half of the balloon which, like the chicks and the rabbit, had taken on too much of the background to match up with the rest of the balloon. I used the same procedure as with the rabbit’s nether regions to bring it up to scratch.
I had originally planned to use the Easter greeting on the hot air balloon graphic at the top of the image but it failed to make the impact I had envisaged so I made a type layer instead with a font called Great Vibes.
The last touch was using the graphic above by removing its border and background and applying a ‘drop shadow’ and ‘bevel and emboss’ effect.
May Easter Joy Attend You © First Night Design
Available as Posters, Cards, and Prints
Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Take care and keep laughing!
First Night Design 
so cute and whimsical )
LikeLike
So happy you like it!
LikeLike
Great work. I understand perfectly well your comment about categories. I think unless you have a category in mind when you’re creating, if you’re a fairly imaginative person you might find yourself being… well, yourself!
LikeLike
Exactly! The only useful place for categories is home admin. Thanks very much for the compliment.
LikeLike
This looks great! When you share some of your thoughts in the process it is even more interesting.
I actually started an artwork with these rabbits and the egg over a year ago and it’s still sitting on my art table.
I turned the egg into Humpty Dumpty…(-:They are finished but just haven’t decided what artwork I want to use them in.
I understand your frustration with the categories. I experience that as well. Sometimes I go through the same thing with titles, descriptions, etc.
LikeLike
Descriptions drive me nuts! I look forward to your Humpty.
LikeLike