Embedded Files
I read the descriptions of the book Learning First in Black and White by Diane Solvang-Angell, and was inspired by this chart, specifically the Five Basic Removals, for managing negative/positive space. This image uses one of those five basic removals. The concept seemed so simple but it took me a long time to figure out how to do it in iColorama. I used the Shape Mask function in iColorama to cut a perfect circle. Finally, I threw in the idea of worm-like Metabrushed curves crawling through the composition, to add more visual interest. To yet more interest to the background, I blended in a whirl of activity I hoped would hint at more worm-like swoops in the depths below the surface.
I started with this image which I had made previously. You can see how I made her here.
I made this mask in iColorama using Style/Threshold and then painting white and black in Brush/Paint to clean it up.
I wanted to make a flat background, so with the image of the girl open, using Brush/Paint, I used the color picker to select a shade of background blue near the girl's head, and then with a large hard round basic brush, I painted all over the canvas.
Using the mask I created above, I used Effect/Blend to replace the original blue background with the new flat blue background.
In Effect/Blend, I blended the above image with itself. I used a round shape mask to cut out this disk. I saved but didn't apply.
I inverted the shape mask to create this. And applied.
In Effect/Blend, I blended the image with itself, moving the top image over to the left. Because the background is flat, I didn't have to worry about making a seamless background.
In Effect/Blend, I brought in the disk, moving it over to the right, and masking out the left part of the top image so it didn't obscure the hollow girl on the left.
I opened the image in Metabrush and drew in these curves, with size and opacity at their maximum settings. You can see how I made the brush here.
I liked what I had, but I wanted to make the red curves look as though they were winding in and out of the empty head. So I opened the image in iColorama. I used Effect/Blend to bring back the pre-Metabrush version of the image, and used an inverted mask to mask out the "underneath" portions of the red curves
This is the result of using one of the Style/Edges presets. It added a bit of edges as well as increasing the saturation.
This was the result of applying one of the Form/Escher presets at low/medium opacity. With a large soft round brush at medium opacity, I masked the effect from the face in the disk. I didn't apply.
Here I brought in the pre-Escher color image as a brush mask. I applied. I also made some Adjust/Levels and Adjust/Tonelab preset 4 adjustments
This is the final image after additional color, tone and sharpness adjustments.
Google Sites
Report abuse