From Photo to Photo Art

Back in 2009, I wrote a post about Photo art. I explained that my interest in Photo Art grew out of my trying to create images for use on note cards that looked more like paintings than photographs. And now some seven years later, my interest in Photo Art is still going strong. What started out as means to creating note cards I printed myself has grown into creating images that can be placed on numerous products and sold on several POD sites. (POD stands for Print on Demand)

As there may be some who don't readily understand the term 'Photo Art', I again offer the definition I wrote back in 2009 -- This was originally written by Danny Raphael on the RetouchPro forums. He wrote, [Photo Art is] "Art that is created using computer software in which a photo image is used as a basis or reference."

To achieve my photo Art, I use a number of software: Photoshop, Dynamic Auto Painter, Corel Painter Essentials, Topaz Simplify & Impressions and ON1 Perfect Effects. Sometimes just one, other times several are used to achieve the final output. My goal is to turn a photo into something that looks as if it could have been painted instead of photographed.

My most recent creation started out as a simple photograph of tulips growing in a neighbour's garden. Entitled "Aglow", this image is available for sale on my RedBubble site.


Aglow

Taking that image into Photoshop, I remove the background and crop the image so I am left with just the white tulips and about half the green stems and leaves. Continuing to play with the image, I add smart blur to simplify the structures, and glowing edges which in turn are inversed and desaturated to create pencil lines.

The image is then saved out from Photoshop and opened in Dynamic Auto Painter (DAP). In DAP, using the Azo AOP (template), a watercolour version is created. Add a watercolour paper texture and saved. This saved digital painting is then brought back into Photoshop to have a light creme coloured background added.

Some additional tweaks in Photoshop to vibrance and contrast and the image is now complete. This digital watercolour, entitled "Spring's beauties", can be found on my Society 6 site.


Spring's beauties
Clicking on any of the above images will bring you to their respective shop where one could, if they so desired, purchase the images on numerous products such as a Greeting Cards, Fine Art prints, Canvas or Framed Prints and Posters, cellphone cases, throw pillows and tote bags and more.

Please feel free to leave comments.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again.