Digital Art - Photography Based Digital Painting
I love original photography, but I also have a passion for creating digital art from my photographs. I'm not talking about using an app to get a quick result, (although I confess to doing that sometimes) but about actually creating something new from my work using software like Corel® Painter.
Image © Diane Macdonald. All Rights Reserved.
Click on the image to view full screen!
| Camera | Canon EOS D30 |
| Lens | 50mm |
| Exposure | 1/30 sec; f/6.7; ISO 400 |
| Post-processing | Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe Camera Raw, and Corel® Painter IX |
I have a story to tell about this digital painting, entitled “Consider the Lilies.” I won a national award for it through Professional Photographers Of America a few years back, but the award did not come easily! The five professional judges were tough, and four of them, although they liked it, blew it away as something anyone could do with a few clicks of a mouse in Adobe® Photoshop!
Luckily for me though, the fifth judge was an internationally known expert in the use of Corel® Painter, Jane Conner-Ziser, and I listened in awe as she explained to the other judges the work that had been involved in the creation of the work. (It took me a couple of days to get the desired finished look.)She fought so hard for my work that she managed to convince the other four judges to vote for my print at the award-winning level. How humbling that was, and what an honor to have someone who didn't know me fight for my recognition!
So I am rekindling my digital painting passion, by offering up a new challenge using the tag #photodigitalpainting. Please don't use it for just some brightly colored photography though. This tag should be reserved for paintings that are made on the computer, using an original photograph as the base, and preferably using a Wacom pen as your paintbrush. Let us know what software you used. The finished product should not look like a photograph, but should be your interpretation of a photograph! If you have the original, let us see that too.
Here is my original image.
Image © Diane Macdonald. All Rights Reserved.
My image is available for licensing as a stock image through Getty Images here, and you may have seen it on a book cover, like this one.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I appreciate it. Please check out my photography-101 account here: https://steemit.com/@photography-101 and Follow if you wish.
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@dmcamera - As a fellow member with a passion for photography, I appreciate the photos very much. Upvoted
Regards,
@vm2904 friendly neighborhood lion from #thealliance
Thanks! I’m so glad you like them, and thanks for taking the time to comment! 😊
Ooh, this looks fun! I wish I knew how to do this to my pictures. I love all your posts and all the pictures, too!
It is, but it's been a while since I painted digitally. I need to make some fresh pieces! Thanks for the kind words!
That is a work of art and so well deserved the award
Tip!
Thank you kindly for the words and the tip too!
welcome my friend
And hmm! Looks like the digitalpainting tag is being used already , but I didn't find it on the first search. I found posts that had the words in the body of the text, but not using the tag. I have now changed the tag to #photodigitalpainting. It's all a learning experience.
always learning that should be the slogan for Steemit lol
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beautiful color combination
Thanks for dropping by and for the kind words.
I love to do this! I just use PhotoShop as my paint program but it is so much fun to paint in transparent colors over a photo. The next time I post something like that I will use the tag :) Cheers - Carl
Would love to see your work! Although, I have used Photoshop pretty much since it first came out, I have never used it for painting. Im not sure why, but probably because It was never a paint program in the past, so I got used to using Painter. I should try it some day!
This one was pretty silly, it was an illustration for a Steem collaboration story. I painted on top of @jerrybanfield's famous avatar pic, using Luke Skywalker's face as a reference to make Jerry more Skywalker-esque in facial expression. Finished Jerry Skywalker head on top, then composite Jerry Skywalker image in middle, and below I have pasted just the layer I painted on as a reference. The facial expression is quite a bit different in my version than the original Banfield profile pic. Also note on composite image the Steem belt buckle I painted on :)
OOH, that was fun, I bet!
Beautiful clicks dear. Loved them. Regards Nainaz.
#thealliance
so it has been included in
the latest issue of 'Notes'.
Pop over and see what the fam is up to!
@dmcamera that is a fantastic piece of art you created there, but I am afraid I'll have to give this one a miss. I cant even begin to compete with that. Looking forward to your next one though, hopefully not as tough! hahaha
I have never thought that an image can be transformed in such way. Your award is well deserved. This is a masterpiece.
One day when I become more experienced I may try the challenge. So, until then I will look for the software and to start experimenting.
I look forward to seeing what images will be presented.
Oh yes. Just like a painter may use tracing paper when creating work, you can use the image as if it is under tracing paper to create your digital painting. There is a very affordable version of Corel Painter Essentials, which i have recently purchased. It does a fine job too, and is a bit easier to learn than the full version.
Lately I have been integrating AI into this process, starting with a photo or a drawing of mine, running it through a neural network to generate new shapes, and then painting on top of the output in PhotoShop. Sometimes repeating the process by feeding the finished product back into the AI again. Check this one out - started as macro photography of bubbles and ended as... something really strange :) EDIT - oops just realized I was logged in as an alt account - this is @carlgnash :)
https://steemit.com/artexplosion/@carlgnash/dreaming-of-the-dreamer-art-explosion-contest-week-6-surrealism
I love this idea. Very inspirational. Like you I love playing with images and at times find it difficult not to take liberties in a creative way. Thanks for opening this tag up. I do love your work. You are a great artist on so many levels.
This turned out gorgeous, Diane! I had no idea your art has been published, though I'm not surprised. Congratulations on winning the contest. It only takes one person (judge) to have faith on someone to make a difference!
Thanks. I’m a stock photographer and have had thousands of publications over the years, and more book covers than I can count. Lol! It was an experiment submitting digital painting as stock! It has limited usage, so stock agengies don’t usually like to accept that kind of work. It’s not technically a good stock image, but I knew it would work for books and greeting cards.
Too bad I still do not know, but I'll try, I do not promise you it's pretty hahaha @dmcamera
It's fun to do. You should give it a try. ;-)