Mystirical: Imagination

Title: Imagination

Layers: At least 52

Time: 25 - 30 hours

Credits: 

Horse:  http://venomxbaby.deviantart.com/art/akhal-teke-colt-5-167950165

Water: http://synyster-stock.deviantart.com/art/Waterfall-Stock-1-119268962?q=favby%3Ajesuslover488448%2F40959001&qo=66

Background 1: http://fairiegoodmother.deviantart.com/art/Premade-BK-Stock-341-150126780?q=favby%3Ajesuslover488448%2F40959001&qo=65

Background 2: http://greenleaf-stock.deviantart.com/art/jungle-13-148934704?q=favby%3Ajesuslover488448%2F40959001&qo=64

Jellyfish Reference from the movie "Avatar" by James Cameron

While I enjoyed many of the other assignments this semester, “Mystirical” was my favorite.  I believe that this is mostly because I enjoy manipulating images in photoshop to create something original and new. So, of course, when I first heard about this assignment my excitement mounted.

                To start the assignment, I began by looking for various stock images on the internet so that I could start by creating the background (I had permission to use each of them).  After finding the photos I needed (I used three total), I implemented layer masks in order to help hide and blend the background layers together in a convincing manner.  After this step was finished, I created several new layers and added the lighting and atmospheric effects I needed to set the mood.  These effects included mist coming off of the water, the light emitting off of the jellyfish creatures, and darkening a good portion of the background near the sky.

                Feeling satisfied with the background, I again searched for stock photos, however, this time I was looking for a suitable horse.  Because I wanted the horse to be looking upwards curiously at the jellyfish, I needed a pose that would be similar to the idea I had in mind. Finding the right pose was difficult, yet not impossible, so after finding it, I began working on the horse I was using.  This horse, however, didn’t last long.  Because I am an equestrian major, I felt as if his conformation was horrible, and so, since I became tired of looking at it, I spent a lot more time looking for a “prettier” horse.  After finding a better horse, the real work began.

                To edit the horse, and to make him appear convincingly within the background, I cut him out very carefully with the polygonal lasso tool and pasted him as a seperate layer on the background.  This being finished, I adjusted the hue/saturation, and colorized him to the lovely blue color he is now.  Though he was blue, there were many other things that needed adjustment, and the first priority was the lighting – he was much to brightly lit, and he lacked shadows and highlights in the right places.  This, though it appeared difficult at first, was actually quite simple. All I had to do was paint different light effects on multiple layers with different presets and opacities to blend him more subtlety to the background.  After the shading was finished, I realized his shadows were much too dark and so I reduced the opacity of the layers I used for shadows.  I also added the stripes on its back and face with a soft brush and smudged them in in the direction of the hair.

                Light and shadows done, there were still many things I needed to fix in order to achieve the look and feel I was trying to accomplish. Since the horse had no mane, this was next on my to-do list.  To paint the mane I used a small soft round brush, and after tracing the general flow of the hair with hot pink (so that it would stand out), I used a variety of shadows and highlights on the blue end of the color spectrum to paint the hair.  Once this was done, I created another layer and added the shadow of the mane against the horse’s neck, and painted another layer with the bands holding the bunches of mane together.

                Though my picture was getting closer to being done, I still needed jellyfish creatures for the horse to look at.  Though I had one previously, it looked awkward, so I deleted it -- deciding instead to draw my own jellyfish.  This took quite a bit of time, and though I used reference from the movie "Avatar" off of the internet, I still feel like there is something slightly wrong with them.  After creating the two base models, I duplicated their layers, resized and rotated the duplicates, and then placed them randomly around the image, yet trying to draw the eye to the largest one.  After this was finished, there were just a few touches I needed to complete before I felt the manipulation would be done.

                This last step, was simple, yet it proved to be slightly difficult considering that I wanted to draw a cat tail on the horse.  The reason that it was difficult, was because I needed to be able to accurately match the colors and values of the horse to the tail that I wanted to paint.  Fortunately, though, since what I was doing was digital, all I had to do was select multiple values within the horse and use those to paint the tail. I then erased what I was unhappy with, and built upon what I liked.  After the tail was finished, I saved the image as a jpeg file, and sharpened it slightly.  This being done, I could officially say I was finished.

                Overall, I really enjoyed doing this picture, and while it was very time consuming, and detail intensive, I feel like it was successful, and the best photo-manipulation I have ever done.  While I enjoy photography, I can say I prefer heavily photoshopped images much more.