The Malayan Tiger image above was taken at the Palm Beach Zoo in Florida and he really was not trying to get out of his enclosure. Overall a very interesting way to spend a day!….Digital Lady Syd Most of the fonts were obtained for free on the internet. The original background texture is one I created in Photoshop using a beautiful cross-hatching effect with a brush from Just Jamee Summertime 2012 Brush Sampler 4 brush and a Bevel & Emboss layer style and using two different colors, then smoothing out parts with Gruts FX Cloud Billoway brush. I believe there are 37 Layers and 5 Groups in this little creation using lots of layer styles, colors, and adjustments layers, and even Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Impression 2 (Cartoon Your Critter preset). The really nice swirl is from missm-flourishes-sample brush 2/312 size. (Some of the fonts were free and a few I own and are as listed: CF Anarchy, Dancing Script OT, Mistral, Fuse, 1942 report, DomCasual BT, Angelic War, Naive Deco Sans, Blackoak Std, Catalina Avalon Sans, Blackboard, and Trajan Pro in case you might want to download one of them.) The tree on the side is Tree-169 brush by Midnightstouch. I was mainly practicing how to incorporate different fonts with different techniques. The number of fonts is a bit excessive but many belong to a similar class of fonts. The above is what I created after listening to a couple hours on how to do this – lots of fun. They are available when you buy the Somerset Digital Studio magazine for Spring 2017 and there is lots of info on this tricky subject.
Spent a good part of Sunday going through the wonderful videos by Sebastian Michaels on Typography. Just took a lot of clean up but eventually it came out like I wanted it! I really liked the effect that Jai came up with – give it a try!….Digital Lady Syd A Black and White Adjustment Layer was added and set to Luminosity to get the colors just right. The just some clean was done in PS and the texture was reapplied on top, set to Overlay blend mode and 52% layer opacity to add some warmth back into the fur of the gorilla. On a Stamped layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E), the layer with both gorilla and texture was taken into Topaz Impression 2 where the Quick Sketch I preset was applied with these changes: Color Overall Sat -1.00 and Overall Lightness -0.52 Set to Hard Light bm at 54% layer opacity.
After reading Jai Johnson’s Being Expressive blog, I decided to try the effect she described. Then a Color Balance Adjustment Layer was set to Highlights and Just the Yellow-Blue slider was set to +35 to add a little blue tone into the whites. A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer was used to desaturate the texture a little and remove the warm gold color, and a Levels Adjustment Layer were used to make the yellow color even more white. But first one of Jai Johnson’s fabulous natural textures was placed behind him – one called Daily Textures Captured Light Sea 4 (free download if you sign up for her newsletter). It was okay that the selection was not perfect since just this layer was going to be taken into Impression. The Gorilla was separated from his background using the Select and Mask Tool. There was a lot of clean up done to get him ready for the texture and Topaz Impression filter used in the image. I believe he was concerned for the little gorillas that were playing near him. This gorilla I have used in several blogs – he was very much aware of everything going on around him and all who were watching him. I love these beautiful clay lions – they are so striking!….Digital Lady Syd Last step added just a simple line border. On another stamped layer Nik Viveza2 was applied to adjust the contrast just right. Then a stamped layer was created (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E) was placed on top and taken into Topaz ReStyle using the Cream and Plum preset (one of my favorites) was applied to the image and set to Hue blend mode at 76% layer opacity. A Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer was used to adjust the color. Melissa Gallo’s Painted Textures Mist on the Lake (no longer available)) was applied twice – one set to Normal and one to Linear Burn at 55% layer opacity.
Then Topaz (see sidebar for website link) Impressions2 using a Van Gogh preset was applied and the effect was painted off back in PS on the lions face. To begin in PS, a free action by Chris Spooner called Engraved Effect Medium was used on the whole image. Henry Flagler had these lions placed over both this hotel and the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College) exteriors. Augustine of the back of the Alcazar Hotel (Lightner Museum) showing one of the beautiful red clay lions.