Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to create any more Easter designs this year, partly because I’ve run out of ideas. I’m bored with eggs and rabbits and whimsy, and nothing amusing is coming to mind, so here’s a re-post of May Easter Joy Attend You from 2014 of which I’m rather fond even though it contains rabbits and chicks and an egg!
I dedicate this re-post to the artist Mary of Oil Pastels by Mary because we were discussing working with layers in Photoshop a couple of days ago. Do visit Mary’s blog to see her beautiful work.
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!
Very cleverly done Sarah. A nice break from the too traditional.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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Thanks so much, David. Happy Easter Hugs!
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I love this less traditional Easter image….
It’s been a strange year for me, when holidays have come and gone almost without my noticing them….ah well…maybe a good cleansing of our collective mental palettes:) Keep smiling. Janet.
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Bless you, Janet. I can’t begin to tell you how many occasions in the last few decades have passed me by! Happy Easter!
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Thank you, dear friends. I’m unable to like your comments at the moment as I’ve run out of bandwidth again. This new operating system for the Mac is downloading I don’t know what and trying to resolve the situation is exacting a heavy toll on my peace of mind. All I know is that it’s not me downloading over 1 gb a day! I’ve changed settings countless times on the advice of various forums but it’s made not a blind bit of difference. Such is life. Happy Tuesday!
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Ah Sarah you are full of surprises – thank you very much for the call-out, means a lot. Wow, I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about your process, it all is very interesting. Not only must you understand good composition, but you really must see where you are bringing the art project – in this case between the layers and digital editing it brought to the surface a beautifully creative piece. It has the look of yesterday, love the blue pearly satin sash that surrounds the egg – gives the scene a touch of elegance. Have a lovely week and thank you again Sarah, made my morning!
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It’s my pleasure, Mary. I’ve never had any formal art training, other than an Art O-level so I guess I must have a natural instinct for shape, colour and composition. Happy Easter!
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Sometimes the most fascinating art develops and comes alive from those that aren’t inhibited by formal training – your instinctive tendencies build the most beautiful pieces. Happy Easter to you ~
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May you have the happiest of Easters this year. And look for the Poe print sometime in April. I assure you, he is worth the wait. 🙂
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You too, Alicia! Don’t worry about Poe. If you knew the mess we’re still in having moved over lock, stock and barrel, you would know that the later it arrives, the better!
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Oh! I hope it starts getting easier. I’ll tell you what: Poe will sit here, wrapped and ready to go. When things have calmed down on your end, just give me the word and I will post it then!
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An utterly new Easter? It’s a great image and not conventional. I understand the difficulty with classifications… It’s your own method…Happy Easter.
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Thanks so much, Olga!
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Lovely entries. Have a bountiful
Easter.
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Bless you, Prof!
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Lovely as always…Really liked how you do your technique…
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Much thanks, Marilyn!
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I know what you mean – my idea of adding Easter to a design of late is adding a couple of rabbit ears poking up from behind something to simply give an “illusion” of Easter! 🙂
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What an excellent idea. I shall steal it to create something for next Easter!
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😉
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